There must be an off-exhibit area for the winter, as this photo shows the indoor housing that is shared by the gibbons and mona monkeys. I put the Primate House in my "worst" category in my review because it is ridiculous that the small outdoor yard for each of the enclosures is used as a rotational area. I'm not sure how any individual could defend the set-up at Tautphaus Park Zoo but believe it or not there are zoos out there with even worse Primate Houses! (Boise, Cheyenne Mountain, etc)
An excerpt from my 2012 review:
There are a trio of identical outdoor exhibits that all feature a few climbing frames, are all a bit on the small side, but are still adequate for the primates that inhabit them. The problem comes from the fact that there are two species in each of the three exhibits and they do not mix so there is an ongoing rotational policy that forces one of the species indoors at all times. Why doesn’t the zoo get rid of three of the species and thus double the space for the remaining trio? Ring-tailed and red ruffed lemurs rotate in one exhibit; colobus monkeys and DeBrazza guenons in another; and white-handed gibbons and mona guenons in the third. Inside the small building are indoor viewing areas for the outdoor exhibits, as well as a trio of tiny enclosures for these species: cotton-top tamarin, Goeldi’s monkey and red-tailed boa constrictor. If the zoo only had one species in each exhibit then I would certainly place the Primate House in my “average” category.
Here is my guess as to the reasoning behind it. Idaho Falls usually has a rather short summer, and the zoo is only open to the public six months out of the year. The outdoor exhibits are unusable the rest of the year. So if they were to reduce the number of species and give each block of two to only one species, then fully half of this complex would be in essence empty exhibits a good portion of the time the zoo was open. Also if they just closed up the building and only had outdoor exhibits, then they wouldn't have any primates on display in April or early May when the zoo first opens as it is not warm enough until late May.
Unfortunately the reality is that if you keep tropical species in northern zoos, they're not going to be able to have outdoor access for much of the year.
