Best Mandrill enclosure in the Benelux

Best Mandrill enclosure in the Benelux?

  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
felis silvestris

felis silvestris

Well-Known Member
This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Mandrills in the Benelux. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to list the enclosures in order of what they think is the best.

The Malayan and South American tapir threads are closing tomorrow, and they are both in a draw at the moment, so if you want to vote or give an opinion on the exhibits do it soon before they close.

Antwerp

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Bouillon

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Artis

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Ouwehands

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Photo credits to @bongowwf @Valvas @KevinL @snowleopard @Morgan
 

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Well, well, well. The Bouillon enclosure looks terrible, with a low amount of height and wooden walls blocking out opportunities for the Mandrills to view much of their surroundings. Half of the Artis one is concrete and it's a complete eyesore. The Antwerp exhibit is mediocre. So my vote goes to Ouwehands, even though it's not that memorable either.
 
I think it's indeed least horrible mandrill enclosure. My ranking goes Antwerp, Ouwehands, Artis Bouillon.
Antwerp only has 4 mandrills right now, they have 3 indoor rooms and one outside enclosure. The group is split in 2 pairs. Indoor it's the best I've seen, however the outside let's it fall short.
Artis while getting a lot of hate isn't as terrible because the design of the exhibit creates a lot of visible barriers, conforming more with the fishion fushion society mandrills live in. They also have multiple rooms inside, although a little small.
Ouwehands is third, due to lack of better competition. The island is to small and only one room inside.
Bouillon is just horrendous.
If I were to design a mandrill enclosure I would model it more like modern Bonobo enclosure like Planckendael with multiple rooms inside that all have multiple entrances and exits connecting each other. I would look to work with a live bark layer as flooring largely. Have 2 outside enclosures allowing to split the group full time if needed. I would add barriers inside rooms or outside allowing animals to break visual contact. I would add plenty of enrichment opportunities, with set constructions like puzzle boxes and termite mounds, and plenty of loose adage. I would net the outside enclosure so no moat is needed. So if you read my ideal enclosure and the ones above I think the ranking makes sense.
Important note in this poll is that Antwerp will stop holding Mandrills. Once the Jubilee complex is finished, the mandrills will move to behind the scenes in Planckendael since no one want to take them.
 
The exhibit at Antwerp you showed here is actually not the current mandrill exhibit - the mandrills now use the next door former Hamadryas baboon outdoor exhibit (see photos linked below), while the spider monkeys are in the exhibit shown above.

Small monkey house - Mandrill outdoor exhibit, 2021-07-17 - ZooChat

In terms of judging the exhibits, I don't think it makes much of the difference as the current mandrill exhibit is only a little bit larger than the one shown above, and isn't furnished or structured substantially better.

The two indoor exhibits at Antwerp are I think relatively decent in terms of size and structure, but the outdoor exhibit is too small. Still I would say Antwerp is the least bad of these.
 
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Despite its ugliness, the enclosure in Artis is quite effective for the primates, there are visual barriers so the animals can get out of eachothers way. There are many better mandrill enclosures around, but if you look past the concrete, I would think it is possibly the best one around, it is at least the most spacious.
 
Poll closed. Congratulations to Antwerp for having the best Mandrill enclosure in the Benelux. Having multiple indoor areas may have given it the edge, although all the enclosures in this poll have been very poor. This is their third win so far, after Komodo dragon and (joint) malayan tapir wins.

Antwerp: 47.6%
Ouwehands: 28.6%
Artis: 23.8%
 
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