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First Ring-tailed Lemurs in Captivity and Reasons for Their Numbers in Zoos
- Thread starter Nikola Chavkosk
- Start date
Doesn't the Florida Aquarium also have a RTL walk-thru?
Walk-through primate enclosures are unfortunate rarer in North America, and my understanding is that the reason has to do with liability. In our highly litigious country, a zoo has to spend quite a bit of time and money to create a shield from lawsuits if someone gets bitten by a pissed-off monkey.
I've never been to Florida Aquarium unfortunately (though I've been to Tampa, only had time to visit Lowry Park Zoo and Busch Gardens - hope to visit aquarium there someday). I agree that US zoos are trying to stay away from lawsuits. I think walk-through rainforest exhibits with some species of tamarin or a marmoset are maybe more common here than lemur walk-throughs. Squirrel-monkey walkthroughs are also virtually non-existent (as far as I know, only Phoenix Zoo may have one and Miami Monkey Jungle allows visitors who pay extra to go inside squirrel-monkeys territory). Europe also has colobus walk-throughs and Barbary ape walk-throughs, but I think there are none in the US. Even safari park primate drive-throughs no longer exist - I remember that Six Flags Safari in New Jersey used to have baboon a drive-through up until early 2000s (which was pretty cool I thought), but it was eventually discontinued.
Phoenix Zoo definitely has one, as I walked through it earlier this year. I thought there were others, but now that I think about it, no other examples come to mind.