Mixed Animal Enclosures

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Billie.A

New Member
Hi, I'm currently studying towards a degree in animal science and i also volunteer in a little zoo, Drusillas in the UK.

As part of my degree i have to undertake a project of my choice. I am really interested in lemurs and would like to hear from other people who can share some info. At drusillas zoo we have ring tailed lemurs (all male) in with a breeding family group of black lemurs. The group works perfectly and some how they are able to communicate with each other, despite having different vocalizations and coming from different parts of Madagascar.

What i'd like to know is if any other zoos have different species of lemur in together with each other, or anything similar and how it all works? Their inter-specific and intraspecific interactions. Have other zoos tried and failed? what was different? what went wrong? what other animals work well together?
 
Black-and-white ruffed lemur + Red ruffed lemur
Ruffed lemurs + Ring-tailed lemur
Black lemur + Ring-tailed lemur
Black lemur + Red-bellied lemur + Ring-tailed lemur
 
A lot of zoos mix there lemurs together for example Chester has Ring-Tailed Lemur on Island which where mixed with the Red-Bellied Lemur. Some zoo's have mixed Red Ruffed and Black and White Ruffed together which have created hybrids.
Noah's Ark Zoo Farm have said that they mixed African Spurred Tortoise in with the Ring-Tails.

Hope this helps
 
Hi, in the past 2 years I’ve spent most Saturdays volunteering with the lemurs at Howletts in Kent. We currently have 5 crowned lemurs, 2 B&W ruffeds and 3 (male) red-bellied lemurs living together. There was the idea of introducing black lemurs but the females are too territorial. For specifics I’d rather talk privately so please PM me if you have any questions.

Regarding other mixes, Bronx Zoo has ring-tails with collared-brown lemurs. I think Cotswold Wildlife Park have 5 species in their walk-through but I’ve not visited yet. Antananarivo Zoo has a little island with RTLs plus common browns and a crowned lemur (if I remember correctly).

Monkey World and London Zoo also had a ruffed in with their ring-tails but one has passed away and the other has moved zoo, respectively.
 
Thanks for all your help so far guys! That's really interesting, especially having black and white ruffs in with others. We have Black and white ruffs at Drusillas but found them too violent to be in with the blacks and ring tails. The ring tails are so placid and so together the blacks work well with them.
I shall look into these other zoos, interesting no one else seems to have blacks in with ring tails, but more commonly red-bellied or red ruffed.
 
How and whether mixes work is about more than species. There are individual personalities to consider. And exhibit size compared to animal numbers. And exhibit landscape variations. Zoos try combinations in the exhibits they have. What works there may or may not work here. An exploration of these variants and how to predict successful mixes or what exhibit alterations to make to increase success would be very valuable.
 
Billie.A said:
The ring tails are so placid and so together the blacks work well with them.
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You did say they're all boys. I suspect a female or two would make the situation far more difficult.

As above, character and upbringing also comes into it. Howletts' old B&W ruffed lady used to have a go at keepers, the current one is totally laid back apart from chasing others at meal times.

The black lemur female can be horrible to her poor little mate and whilst black lemurs are particularly matriarchal, I don't think all are as bad as her.
 
At Bristol their lemur walk through has ring tailed and crowned lemurs - both bred last year. Up at Wildplace they have a breeding group of ring tailed with 2 male red-bellied and a non-breeding pair of mongoose lemurs. In the past Bristol had red-ruffed lemurs (non-breeding group) in with a group of ring-tailed, and although there was some sparring the two species got along fairly well.
 
The Dallas Zoo mixes a pair of b+w ruffed with one collared lemur. Ring tails rotate into the exhibit without being mixed. The zoo plans to add Aldabra giant tortoises soon, which will be interesting. I imagine that the tortoises will not rotate.
 
Before their lemurs were moved elsewhere, Santa Barbara Zoo, I believe, had a mixed group of B&W and Ring taileds.

On Madagascar, many subspecies of lemurs overlap their territory and they make it work. I think a Ritail is less worried about a Blue-eyed black Lemur stealing his females than he would be another Ringtail. Does anyone know of any statistics of lemurs in different subspecies mating and creating a hybrid? I know it happens with lions and tigers and Leopards and Jaguars. We know different subspecies of dolphins have mated as well as a false killer whale and bottle nose dolphin. I'm speaking strictly of captivity, not the wild. Does anyone know of there being any hybrid lemurs in a zoological setting due to them being in a mixed species exhibit?
 
Smithsonian National Zoo has 2 Black & White Ruffed Lemurs exhibited with 5 Ring Tailed and 2 Red-Fronted.
 
azcheetah2 said:
Does anyone know of there being any hybrid lemurs in a zoological setting due to them being in a mixed species exhibit?
Click to expand...

Yes, there are a few Black and White x Red Ruffed Lemurs about, these used to be bred regularly at various collections, this was due to the fact that they were formally considered the same species. I believe some Brown lemur species have hybridised, althoguh I'm not 100% certain.
 
Thanks once again guys. I 100% agree on individual animal characters. All out male ring tails are Drusillas have been castrated and although they are fairly placid, they do still have their squabbles, which of course is totally normal but still produce some nasty injuries. If a female was introduced to them the fighting would be awful. With the blacks there is a breeding pair and their 2 children (one male and one female). Blacks release different pheromones to the ringtails and so the ringtails never want to mate with the blacks. However, some of the ringtails known when our black lemur is pregnant and will also help to nurse her young. It is not all of the ringtails but there a few that take extra care of our female black lemur.
I have also noticed that the black lemur children do not get told off by their parents and, if they happen to annoy a ringtail, and the ringtail tells them off, the black lemur mother will immediately tell of the ring tail.

As far as personality goes, the rings and blacks work so well because of their placid personalities. However, we could never put our black and white ruffs in with them because, they are too violent
 
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