Both ruffed lemurs, Mongoose Lemur, and Coquerel's Sifaka are all fairly common and CR.
Replace a popular US zoo animal with a more endangered one
- Thread starter CMP
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Both ruffed lemurs, Mongoose Lemur, and Coquerel's Sifaka are all fairly common and CR.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Agreed but there are several of the Eulemurs for example that are CR and are not.
There's only three CR Eulemur. Mongoose Lemur for one, another one of which at least is kept with some regularity.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Yes, but three is sufficient to warrant more space allocated ex-situ and focus by zoos don't you think ?
I didn't suggest it myself, as ring tailed lemurs are endangered and their numbers are dwindling, but for the purposes of this thread I think it works fine. However, the ringtail should not be replaced but rather there should be a better balance of lemurs.
Here is a thread Onychorhynchus coronatus made about this topic: dhttps://www.zoochat.com/community/threads/could-and-should-the-ring-tailed-lemur-be-replaced-by-other-lemur-species-in-zoos.478345/
Oh wait... You are Onychorhynchus coronatus :0
Would it be nice, yes. Is it realistic to try and establish a captive population of every lemur? Unfortunately likely not. In the US we have Ring-tailed Lemur, the ruffed lemurs, Mongoose Lemur, and Coquerel's Sifaka that are at least reasonably widespread. We also have Black Lemur, Crowned Lemur, Red-bellied Lemur, Red-fronted Lemur, and the Aye-aye in some population. That's ten species, of which 6-8 are fairly viable. The Ring-tail and the two ruffeds are the best situated and fairly stable. It might be possible to bolster the Eulemur species by European imports, but there are two primary factors.
Most importantly would be garnering enough interest from zoos in the Eulemur. The Ring-tail and sifaka have been highly popularized, and the ruffed lemurs are flashy. Most Eulemur are not. In my experience Eulemur are either tucked away or mixed with other lemurs, rather than being showcased.
Second would be figuring how to establish successful populations without taking too many spaces from the other lemurs, since all of them are endangered. There would need to be a balance. Similarly balancing with other similar-sized endangered primates would need to be taken into account, for example the Francois' Langur.
I think it could be possible to boost the Eulemur in the US, but at the present moment I feel the likelihood of it happening is rather low.
There are many non endangered primate species being kept, however. Also, lemurs have filled many biological niches, so mouse lemurs, in my opinion, should be considered separately from the more 'regular lemurs' as they are quite different in many ways. I also think that not every zoo needs to have all of the lemurs, but rather, they should try to be as evenly spread out as possible. With an organization such as the AZA, this should not be too hard to coordinate, with each region of the country perhaps taking up the responsibility of 5-10 lemurs. That way, with 200+ AZA facilities, a large percentage of lemurs or lemurs capable of being kept in captivity could be accounted for and have significant populations in captivity.
I've actually thought that the Mongoose lemur was a Little Less common than other Lemur species.
The AZA is unlikely to do that. They can only recommend phase in and phase out species, they cannot enforce it. It is up to the zoos themselves whether to go by the guidelines.
The Ring-tailed, ruffeds, Mongoose, and sifaka are already pretty spread out. Splitting species geographically would be very difficult, for multiple reasons. The northwest and North plains areas are low on zoos, and any lemur species would have to be kept indoors in winter. Shunting geographically would also require an insane amount of transfers, as well as mess up mixed exhibits. Not a feasible idea.
Also remember a significant portion of those 200+ AZA will not hold lemurs. MBA, Georgia Aquarium, and similar have no use for lemurs and no real place to put them. You would be looking at probably 150ish facilities capable of holding lemurs.
Also remember imports from Madagascar are not really an option at all. Working with Europe is the only real valid option with lemurs.
@CheeseChameleon2007 You are correct that the Mongoose Lemur is less common, however there are still quite a few more than many of the other ten I listed.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Thats a thought provoking comment, I agree its challenging but I don't think its impossible to popularize / showcase other Eulemur species as they are also attractive, furry, cute, flashy in their own way too.
I imagine there are far more zoos in the US and Canada than in Western Europe so if I'm correct in that assumption there would also be far more space (discounting substandard institutions of course).
Yes, also agree that it is unlikely but in the future it could happen if there was enough will to make it happen.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Yes, very good comment there, I think that would be ideal to spread them out evenly among institutions and as you say although not perfect the AZA does have the organizational skills and know-how to implement something like this.
That depends on whether you are just referring to AZA and high quality little zoos or including all the raunchy places. I believe Europe outnumbers us on good facilities.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately I'm not sure I can agree with that statement.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Well I think Europe has some damn good zoos but I would imagine that numerically there are a higher amount of zoos in the USA and many of them are also of good quality.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
The EAZA has double the members AZA has. It's no contest between us and Europe, even adding the good non-AZA facilities to NA tally.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Hmmmm , I didn't know that so it is very interesting for me to learn this.
I don't know enough about how EAZA manages populations to give a particularly good opinion. However currently we are seeing a lot of declining populations and homogenization in the AZA. Many of the declines could have or still could be stopped, but the AZA isn't acting on it. They're also not working with private breeders real well; some of the individual institutions are, but the AZA as a whole is not.
