I have many ideas for an ideal zoo, but the one I would most wish to create would be a primate park.
I have taken inspiration from primates kept/previously kept at Monkey World, Dao Tien Rescue Centre, Berlin Zoo, Cologne Zoo, Frankfurt Zoo, Leipzig Zoo, Stuttgart Zoo, Wuppertal Zoo, Zoo Planckendael, La Vallee des Singes, Apenheul and Twycross.
There would be seven sections to the zoo; Nocturnal, Lemurs, Monkeys (South America), Monkeys (Asia), Monkeys (Africa), Gibbons and Great Apes. The majority of the exhibits would be mixed, and various of the Asian monkeys and gibbons would either live together or with great apes, as would some African monkeys with great apes.
NOCTURNAL
This would be the smallest section (a building), and would house grey mouse lemurs, fat-tailed dwarf lemurs, aye-ayes, grey-legged night monkeys, southern Bolivian night monkeys, Bengal slow lorises, greater slow lorises, pygmy slow lorises, grey slender lorises, pottos, greater galagos and Senegal bushbabies. Each species would have their own enclosure (no mixed exhibits). The more endangered species (e.g. aye-ayes, grey-legged night monkeys, pygmy slow lorises, grey slender lorises) would have screens up in front of their on-show exhibits that allows the visitor enough viewing into their exhibit so that the animals can be viewed but won't be stressed. The more endangered animals would also get more access into their off-show exhibits. There would be signs dotted around at obvious points reminding visitors to remain quiet for the animals' wellbeing, and there would also be a keeper on hand to enforce this.
LEMURS
One thing I find with diurnal lemurs is how good they are in mixed exhibits. Therefore, all my lemur species would be housed with at least two other species of lemur. The main exhibit would be a walkthrough home to ring-tailed lemurs, red-bellied lemurs, white-fronted lemurs and red ruffed lemurs. There would be another walkthrough home to brown lemurs, black lemurs and black-and-white ruffed lemurs, only this one would cordon the animals off from the visitors with netting, creating a tunnel of sorts for the visitors to walk through and observe the lemurs around them without any direct interaction like in the main exhibit. The other two lemur enclosures would house greater bamboo lemurs, Alaotra reed lemurs and crowned sifakas in one, and crowned lemurs, blue-eyed black lemurs and white-belted black-and-white ruffed lemurs in the other. Again, all vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species would be given more frequent access to off-show exhibits than usual (all species would be allowed to go off-show, but these three categories more so than others), meaning that sometimes the latter two exhibits may be completely empty. Hopefully the walkthrough exhibits would compensate. There would be a maximum of two staff members/volunteers on hand in the walkthroughs at all times (this would be the same in any walkthrough).
MONKEYS (SOUTH AMERICA)
Four walkthrough exhibits here.
These would contain Goeldi's monkeys, common squirrel monkeys, Venezuelan/Colombian red howler monkeys and one of two families of white-faced sakis in one, Geoffroy's marmosets and black-capped squirrel monkeys in another, Illiger's saddleback tamarins and Peruvian squirrel monkeys in the third and black-tufted marmosets, pied tamarins, emperor tamarins, golden-headed lion tamarins and red titi monkeys in the last one.
Other mixed exhibits would include one with pygmy marmosets, black-mantled tamarins, golden lion tamarins and the second family of white-faced sakis, another with common marmosets and golden-handed tamarins, another with red-bellied white-lipped tamarins and black howler monkeys, another with golden-white tassel-eared marmosets and cottontop tamarins, one with silvery marmosets and red uakaris, and the last one with black-tailed marmosets and Bolivian red howler monkeys.
Solo exhibits would include white-fronted capuchins, brown capuchins, bearded capuchins, yellow-breasted capuchins, white-faced capuchins, weeper capuchins, woolly monkeys, brown spider monkeys, Geoffroy's spider monkeys, red-faced black spider monkeys, Peruvian spider monkeys and Colombian black spider monkeys.
MONKEYS (ASIA)
Individual exhibits for Asian monkeys would include Japanese macaques and rhesus macaques. Mixed exhibits would be lion-tailed macaques and Hanuman langurs, stump-tailed macaques and François' langurs, proboscis monkeys and silvery langurs, and montane purple-faced langurs and tufted Hanuman langurs.
MONKEYS (AFRICA)
Mixed exhibits would include one for patas monkeys, vervet monkeys, barbary macaques, drills and western black-and-white colobus monkeys, and one for hamadryas baboons and geladas.
Single exhibits would include Schmidt's red-tailed monkeys, yellow-nosed red-tailed monkeys, lesser spot-nosed monkeys, crowned monkeys, Lowe's monkeys, diana monkeys, roloway monkeys and Allen's swamp monkeys.
GIBBONS
All gibbon species at the park would be housed with another primate species.
Exhibits would include Müller's gibbons and pig-tailed macaques, northern buff-cheeked gibbons (on loan from Dao Tien) and Toque macaques, southern white-cheeked gibbons and grey-shanked doucs (on loan from Pingtung Rescue Centre), northern white-cheeked gibbons and red-shanked doucs, pileated gibbons and black-shanked doucs (on loan from Dao Tien), lar gibbons and southern lowland wetzone purple-faced langurs, golden-cheeked gibbons and dusky langurs, black-crested gibbons and Phayre's langurs and agile gibbons and maroon langurs/surilis.
Those more endangered gibbon species/monkey species housed with gibbons would be kept off-show.
GREAT APE HOUSE
This is the part I have put the most thought into.
The house would be eleven-sided and four stories tall. A gradually rising boardwalk on stilts would give visitors access to the house, and there would also be an option to walk around the whole of the house seeing the apes' islands below.
The ground floor would be off limits to the public, and would hold the ape bedrooms and the kitchen.
The second floor would be the beginning of the ape playroom, and the third would be the rest of the playroom as well as where the viewing areas for the public would be. The top floor would be used as a quarantine/ separation area (e.g. a problematic animal, introductions to a newborn baby and its mother etc.)
The playrooms would be two stories high and would be on both sides of the viewing area, connected by tunnels in the ceiling (which can easily be closed off to separate individuals e.g. mature male orangutans).
Each of the ten types of ape I would have would have their own island/islands, and would share with a monkey species/gibbon species.
As soon as you enter the first ape you reach would be Sumatran orangutans. They would share with siamangs. The orangutan colonies of the house would each have three islands that can be connected or not by ropes and bridges.
The next ape would be western chimpanzees. This would be a bachelor group, and would live with mandrills.
After that would come the western lowland gorillas. They would live with L'Hoest's monkeys.
Then there would be Bornean orangutans. They would share with Javan langurs.
After them would come bonobos, who would live with owl-faced monkeys.
Then there would be central chimpanzees (a mixed non-breeding group) who would live with De Brazza's monkeys, and after them would come eastern lowland gorillas (a breeding group) who would live with eastern black-and-white colobus monkeys. Then there would be a mixed non-breeding group of non-subspecific chimpanzees who would live with golden-bellied mangabeys, and finally there would be a small non-breeding group of hybrid orangutans (held in retirement from zoos) who would live with Kloss' gibbons.
In terms of enclosures, I would want as many species to live on islands/in forest as possible. Obviously some of them (e.g. nocturnal primates, sifakas) couldn't, but I would want the exhibits to be as natural as possible.
I'll try and post a normal zoo idea as well, but I hope you guys liked this concept
