Tonkean Macaque exhibit at Mulhouse 29/08/09

The macaque rock was described as a Cubist rainforest by the original architect, who expected it to the blueprint for all monkey exhibits in the future. Maybe it was for a while. Oddly, the concrete cubes were apparently originally each painted a different colour.

It looks as if a bunch of 10 year-old kids were given some wood, concrete, nails...and then told to come up with some sort of outdated science project. I like the notion of a "cubist rainforest", but the word forest should never be applied to this monstrosity.

I certainly like the idea of trying to produce a stylised representation of rainforest structure -but I agree this is not a particularly successful attempt! The Tonkean Macaque group has been allowed to reduce in numbers recently so that the zoo can move them out of this exhibit and renovate it.

On a side note, I'd never even heard of Tonkean macaques until I commented on this particular photo, and here in North America many major zoos lack the primate species that are found throughout European collections. Does Twycross still have the most number of species on the planet?

I understand there is at least one Asian collection with more. I'm sure they have the most in Europe, though unfortunately many of these are singles or non-breeding groups. They also have odd gaps at Twycross - having no baboons or macaques at all (and now no capuchins either).

snowleopard said:

On a side note, I'd never even heard of Tonkean macaques until I commented on this particular photo, and here in North America many major zoos lack the primate species that are found throughout European collections. Does Twycross still have the most number of species on the planet?

Click to expand...

Twycross didn`t have the most species even when they re-branded themselves the World Primate Centre!