Lemur Walk Thrus

adrian1963

adrian1963

Well-Known Member
What do you think about Lemur Walk Thru’s do more zoos need them or are their already too many in UK zoos or should there be more with different species used in them.

I think the latter should be applied as m0ost walk thru’s have Ring Tailed, Black & White Ruffed in them why not have the lesser used species in them like a walk thru with Red Ruffed, White Fronted, Black, Red Bellied, Gentle, crowned or even brown lemurs or a mix of them, now I think something like that would be more interesting both for the visitor and the keepers alike if you can think of others you would like to see in a walk thru let us know.

Maybe someone could help out and tell us why they don’t seem to use different types of lemur other than the 2 basic types for the walk thru’s I know some are hard to source.
 
Out of all of those, I think crowned and gentle are the only ones I haven't seen in a walkthrough. My favourite lemur walkthrough for species was Cotswold, purely for the fact they had a pair of sifaka in there :D
 
Javan Rhino said:
Out of all of those, I think crowned and gentle are the only ones I haven't seen in a walkthrough. My favourite lemur walkthrough for species was Cotswold, purely for the fact they had a pair of sifaka in there :D
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You beat me to it, I was just about to say that! :D
 
Blackpool's lemur walkthrough has red ruffed and red fronted brown lemurs. I remember one of the former was particularly taken with it's reflection in my wifes camera.

South Lakes Wild Animal Park has red ruffed lemurs roaming around too.

As for my opinion, I love being close up to the animals, but I worry about them around access points... Moreso because they have a habit of hanging around behind doors where they could meet possible injury.
 
Quote from Colchester zoo website

Coming soon for Easter 2012 -
Colchester Zoo's first lemur walkthrough!

Around 165 million years ago, Madagascar started to become separated from Africa by a vast body of water. This isolation led to the evolution of a primate found nowhere else in the world...the lemur!

Lost Madagascar will be Colchester Zoo's very own litle piece of Madagascar right in the centre of the park, providing a unique and immersive experience and allowing you the chance to be closely surrounded by these charismatic, popular animals.

Lemur species to be discovered in the exhbit will include red-bellied, crowned, blue-eyed black and red ruffed lemurs. Watch them leap around you as you stroll through their serene retreat...

Must say although lovely to get close I do find them a bit boring, as in you have seen one seen them all!! Lemur walkthroughs are the same to me as wallaby walkthroughs *yawn* :p I will not be riding the lemur express to lemur mountain :eek::D
 
Javan Rhino said:
Out of all of those, I think crowned and gentle are the only ones I haven't seen in a walkthrough. My favourite lemur walkthrough for species was Cotswold, purely for the fact they had a pair of sifaka in there :D
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There are several factors which make Cotswold's exhibit special:
apart from the sifaka, they have a good range of other lemurs in the walk-through (including black, red-collared and red-bellied as well as ringtails),
they have limited opening and a strict no pushchairs rule,
the enclosure is netted so that they can keep Malagasy birds too, just cattle egrets and Bernier's teal as I recall, but they could add other species eventually,
they have a space to display radiated tortoises as well, if the weather is suitable.​

Alan
 
I love Cotswold too and Yorkshire Wildlife Park because they're my lemurs. The boldest I've seen are at Woburn where the ...not sure of the species... red bellied?... Well they just act as though you are not there, you are taking a picture of one when a big head looms into view as another walks along the rail as though you don't exist.

I think only zoo-geeks would think there are too many so they're boring because hardly anyone goes to more than one zoo in a year and for most people it's a really exciting experience.

Are there species that just wouldn't thrive in a walk-through though, I always imagine gentle lemurs would be too shy.
 
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Banham opened a lemur walkthrough a few months ago with red ruffed and ring-tails. Personally I agree with OrangePerson, apart from zoo geeks who might frown on the popularity of such exhibits, the public love them. Whether you like it or not, public opinion will always influence such trends.....call it market forces if you like!!!
 
Does anyone recall what Edinburgh currently have in the walk-through part of Magic Forest? The exhibit has red-fronted lemur, golden-headed lion tamarin and white-fronted saki according to the website. It was closed when I visited earlier in the year but I'll be taking another look next week.
 
I cannot actually remember... i know Edinburghs did have gentle lemurs at one point... and also the blue eyed lemurs were in there at one point too. Going on Tuesday so i will have a look :)
 
The mix for walk thrus will have some restrictions to prevent inter breeding (eg species of ruffed lemur interbreeding).
 
SMR said:
Does anyone recall what Edinburgh currently have in the walk-through part of Magic Forest? The exhibit has red-fronted lemur, golden-headed lion tamarin and white-fronted saki according to the website. It was closed when I visited earlier in the year but I'll be taking another look next week.
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It's the Saki's in the walkthrough part.
 
The blue eyed lemurs are in the old ring tail enclosure with another lemur that I've forgotten.
 
Aww they looks so sweet and cuddly! The one at Chester was very gentle! I didn't know he was fearsome :)
 
OrangePerson said:
Aww they looks so sweet and cuddly! The one at Chester was very gentle! I didn't know he was fearsome :)
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Thank you :)
Actually gentle or bamboo lemurs are the only large lemurs which do not need a DWA licence. The woolly lemur is also exempt. I suspect this is partly because there is so little chance that any will be kept by private individuals.

Alan
 
Listening to comments in the lemur walk-through at feed and talk time today at Yorkshire Wildlife Park brought this thread to mind - the man next to me was saying it was the best thing he'd seen. People like that's experience is so far from that of zoo-geeks and is why they are and will continue to be a popular feature.
 
OrangePerson said:
Listening to comments in the lemur walk-through at feed and talk time today at Yorkshire Wildlife Park brought this thread to mind - the man next to me was saying it was the best thing he'd seen. People like that's experience is so far from that of zoo-geeks and is why they are and will continue to be a popular feature.
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I went to YWP on New Year's Day and continue to be impressed by their walk-through enclosure. It was fantastic to see both Ring-tailed and Brown Lemurs bounding up and through the trees at very high levels. In my opinion there's no better Lemur walk-through enclosure in the UK.
 
Last week we were able to take a look at the new walk-through lemur enclosure at the Welsh Mountain Zoo. It has some promise, although it's not so much a walk-through, as a "walk-out onto balcony and walk back".

There is one lemur species already in residence, although I can't identify what species exactly and ISIS doesn't have any listed for the collection so suggestions would be welcome. Originally I thought they might be red-fronted lemur (Eulemur rufus), but bongorob didn't seem to think so.

A small collection of photos are here: http://goo.gl/P34Tx
 
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