@PangolinLover0514 as @LeMandaiEnthusiast‧ said, the toys have been around for awhile. While it may not be indicative, Mandai does seem to enjoy rolling out certain official merchandise when a species is due to premier. Case-in-point, the Kiwi plushies with the Mandai tag on them.
Sifaka have long been a part of Mandai's Expansion Plans from several years ago but it's still unclear to me if they are still expected to arrive for the giant Lemur habitat at RP: Africa. From what I recall, one or two, out of 4 species, were considered, though the last one is pretty much out of the question as I don't think there are any zoos that house them, unless there is a collection in Asia that has them that I am unaware of:
- Diademed Sifaka
- Crowned Sifaka
- Coquerel's Sifaka (most probable)
- Verreaux's Sifaka (almost impossible)
Also, interesting to me, personally, how two of the species considered also happen to be the two species that have been depicted in media.
We all know and love Zoboomafoo, which had the Coquerel's Sifaka as the main star. I forgot if they used to air this on Playhouse Disney or Kid's Central in the early 2000's in Singapore, but that was a great TV show, and the second time I've seen a sifaka. I actually thought sifakas were extinct, why? Because in 2000, Disney released what is now a cult classic movie, Dinosaur, which features a family of lemurs. Those lemurs were based off of both the Coquerel's Sifaka, as well as the Verreaux's Sifaka.
Don't know where I'm getting at with that last paragraph, but I hope it's a fun bit of trivia for some of our newer Zoochatters from SG
@BucerosKeeper i would say Mandai would be extremely lucky to receive even one species of Sifaka. As it is, the only 'legal' Sifaka species in zoos (outside of Madagascar at least) are the Coquerel's and Crowned. A very small number of Crowned are held in a handful of zoos in Europe, and it seems unlikely that the population would be sustainable.
Pretty much the only captive facility that is able to export Coquerel's is Duke Lemur Center in the US. Most of the captive population of this species is in zoos in the US, with only 3 zoos in Europe holding the species. Let's see if Mandai is successful in joining the managed programme (I understand Mandai has contributed to diet studies for the species to increase their chances).
