I'm thinking of the hybrid situation between lemurs. I have no idea of the effects of it, but as i mentioned i've seen ruffed lemur mixed.
Mixed lemur exhibits
- Thread starter elefante
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Hybrids are realy are in zoos. This is archived by either keeping more distently related species, with ringtail lemursbeing used for mixes for this exact reason so often, since they are the only member of their genus. With the Ruffed lemurs, which are often keept together, the problem is sloved by keeping bachlor groups (but is also used in part by other specieses). Bachor groups are incredebly often seen in zoos.
There a lot of mixes with diffrent lemur species. And a few with helmeted guineafowl, but in the Birdpark Avifauna, the 3 species of lemurs (ringtailed, red-bellied and red ruffed lemurs) are also mixed with helmeted, crested and vulturine guineafowl, and with crowned cranes aswell, in a walk trough exhibit.:
San Francisco Zoo has: Red Ruffed, Black & White ruffed, ring-tailed, Crowned, Red-fronted Brown, Blue-eyed black and Red Bellied Lemurs all sharing the same Lemur Forest Exhibit. The Zoo also as Coquerel's Sifaka, but they're housed separately.
I would think that to avoid both the possibility of hybridization and the chances of inter-specific aggression, it would be best to avoid housing species from the same genus together. With some exceptions, it is uncommon in Madagascar itself to find species from the same genus living sympatrically.
I'm guessing they usually put them in single sex groups is that correct?
The zoo's Andean bear enclosure is next to this walkthrough, obviously fenced off from the rest of it, but there's nothing stopping lemurs from getting in there, they can just climb up onto the wooden walkway that allows you to look down into the bear enclosure, and it's low enough for them to jump down and jump back out again. I went to a keeper talk for the bears, as the keeper was throwing food in, a red ruffed lemur got into the enclosure and swiped some of the food.
What are the bear-lemur interactions like? Do the bears pose a threat to the lemurs? I know that spectacled bears are not known for being aggressive, but I'm still inclined to think that letting the lemurs into the exhibit is not worth the risk of a potential accident.
Jambi
Well-Known Member
In general I'm not sure, but when I was last there the bears didn't seem to have a problem with the lemur. I remember a long time ago, before the bears were moved to their current enclosure, they shared a South America themed enclosure with tapirs, capybara and at least one type of new world monkey (brown capuchins if I remember correctly), so perhaps they're used to having little monkey-type things running around and it doesn't bother them.
Omaha also mixes Grey Mouse Lemur with Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat, Aye-Aye with Straw-Colored Fruit Bat, Madagascar Ibis & Hadada Ibises with various other lemur species, & until recently, Black Lemur with Madagascar Big-Headed Turtle.