Calgary Zoo Calgary Zoo News 2017

Spring babies include a muskox calf, two bighorn sheep lambs and three great grey owlets.
 
The zoo's conservation center has welcomed a Przewalski's Horse foal. The foal was born to mom Molly.
 
I don't recall what species of lemurs were due in. I think ring tails, black and whites and another species. I did look them up in ssps last year and posted in the 2016 thread.
 
The zoo is celebrating the hatching of two Humboldt penguin chicks and a Gentoo penguin chick.
 
I visited Calgary Zoo 3 times in a week in the summer of 2016 and extensively reviewed the establishment in a 5-page article in Zoo Grapevine magazine. A year later I found myself back in Calgary and I spent 5 hours at the zoo today with my wife and 4 kids and then tonight I uploaded 31 photos into the gallery.

Land of Lemurs, the $8 million development, is very popular and is a successful addition to the zoo. After passing the African Lions, there is a short trail that heralds the beginning of the new, 1.3 acre complex. There is an exhibit that visitors look down on from a boardwalk, a couple of randomly placed bridges that were utilized by kids running around like crazy little lemurs, and then the main attraction is the walk-through zone. During my visit there were a couple of Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs (1.1) in the non-walk-thru section and then once inside the main habitat there were 4 Red-Fronted Lemurs (huddled in one area as they are apparently rather apprehensive) and 7 dominant Ring-Tailed Lemurs. There are lines of visitors waiting as only a crowd of about a dozen people are allowed at a time with a guide into the habitat, and then a second dozen is allowed in with another guide at the other end of the short loop. Once those two groups are finished their 10-minute tour then they are released and two more groups are allowed inside. Another bonus is that after the Land of Lemurs zone visitors walk along a trail around the zebra/ostrich yard and that way there is not the congestion near the lions and giraffes as there used to be. Instead of a dead-end there is now a more natural loop in the African part of the zoo.

I've visited 372 different zoos and aquariums in my lifetime and this was by far and away the best lemur experience as almost nowhere else in North America allows visitors into lemur exhibits with zero barriers. I remember an occasion at Montreal Biodome back in 2008, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in 2012 and Tanganyika Wildlife Park in 2014 (when I hand-fed lemurs and they jumped on my lap!) but that is possibly the extent of walk-through lemur exhibits anywhere on the continent. Calgary is very proud to have zero barriers between lemurs and and the public, as well as having minimal glass barriers in Penguin Plunge. The overall complex is decent, with a couple of side exhibits and a large building where lemurs can be viewed (while the public is outside) in the long winter months. Land of Lemurs is not a ground-breaking exhibit in terms of the aesthetics or overall quality of the design, but it is going to be enormously popular and having 7 Ring-Tailed Lemurs bouncing around just a few feet above me was a very cool experience that I cannot have at just about any other zoo in North America.

Elsewhere there is a lot of anticipation for 2018, as the arrival of 4 Giant Pandas is going to send shockwaves throughout the zoo. Next year will also see the return of Komodo Dragons (currently at Edmonton Valley Zoo - where I'll be this week) and Bactrian Camels, but of course the Giant Panda mania will hit Calgary and projections are for the zoo's attendance to zoom up from 1.2 million to at least 1.5 million or more. A new pedestrian bridge is being constructed, the west entrance is going to be expanded and reopened, and of course things like cafes, gift shops and washrooms will have to be considered with the influx of visitors. The family of pandas is in Calgary from 2018-2023 and then that area will be renovated into a permanent home for orangutans.
 
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Snowleopard totally beat me to the punch with the first Zoochat Land of Lemurs exhibit review! We actually both visited on the same day! I'll post my own review later this week, but I'll have to ensure that it adds to the conversation.

Snowleopard, may you please further explain these two statements you made and how they relate to one another?
snowleopard said:
Land of Lemurs is not a ground-breaking exhibit in terms of the aesthetics or overall quality of the design
Click to expand...
snowleopard said:
I've visited 372 different zoos and aquariums in my lifetime and this was by far and away the best lemur experience
Click to expand...

P.S. I really enjoy reading your reviews, so please continue posting them!
 
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