Well, I can see where you're coming from but I think it'd be a bit harsh to hold it against the house. Particularly as it is just called 'Desert House' - there are plenty of places that would build an 'Arizona-Sonoran Desert House' or 'Kalahari Desert House' and still end up with species from the wrong continent.
And of course, the age-old zoogeographic question: where would you draw the line of what is close enough? Would mixing species from the Sahara and Kalahari be OK becuase both are in Africa? What about the Kalahari and Namib deserts - they're closer, are they OK? It's a minefield - and so I only tend to get pedantic if they've gone out of their way to set up and/or boast about a theme. And even then, there can be problems - I'm sure there aren't that many Aldabran Giant Tortoises in the Masoala National Park but Zurich didn't let that stop them putting them in the Masoala house (actually, I'd be interested to know what percentage of the animal species in there are on the species list for the actual park. I suspect some of the lemurs are 'wrong', too. Still a great house, though).
So the short answer is, yes, I'm being too picky. Got it You do bring up several good points. They didn't name it after a specific region, so all animals fit the "theme" of the exhibit. Nothing bothers me more than to have Damara zebras roaming a "Serengeti" exhibit or something of the like. About Masoala, the thing I've always wondered about with the tortoises is are they interpreting extinct giant tortoises from Madagascar with their presense in the hall? (There were giant tortoises on Madagascar right?)
Personally, I think that most zoo-themes are fine if they are consistent. For example, I think it is perfectly fine to have a desert or rainforest house with animals from different continents if the theme is the habitat itself and not the geographical region. But if the a zoo for instance calls their exhibit "Sonoran Desert" I expect to see only animals from the Sonoran desert there. So I guess I am a bit picky as well
@Maguari: All the lemurs in Masoala in Zürich can be found in the real Masoala National Park (expect for the aloatran gentle lemurs which are representing the eastern grey bamboo lemurs because of availability).
And I think that giant tortoises did live on Madagascar but I am not sure. As for the other animals in Zürich's Masoala I don't know without doing some research first.
@Maguari: All the lemurs in Masoala in Zürich can be found in the real Masoala National Park (expect for the aloatran gentle lemurs which are representing the eastern grey bamboo lemurs because of availability).
And I think that giant tortoises did live on Madagascar but I am not sure. As for the other animals in Zürich's Masoala I don't know without doing some research first.
