Primates in mixed exhibits

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JVM

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10+ year member
What kind of primate mixed exhibits are out there? Which ones have been successful and which have failed? Which monkeys are more open to other species or are not? I'm really curious.

I know colobus and swamp monkey seems to be a common mix, and gibbons seem to do well with orangutan but nothing else, and I have heard of Detroit mixing gorillas and drill before. Lincoln Park has kept callimico and black howler monkeys together. Denver held coppery titi with white-faced saki. I have also heard of forest buffalo being mixed with monkeys in the 90s at San Diego.

I also recall some failed mixes -- Lincoln Park could not allow drill and debrazza monkey together despite attempts, which lead partly to the drill being sent out, and the Bronx Zoo's Javan langurs and Small-clawed otters famously fell out. Tropic World had to remove langurs because the gibbons were too territorial, if I recall.
 
As a broadly general rule, new world usually mixes ok with new world, unless a spider/wooly or capuchin is involved in the picture.

I’m not certain if it’s publicly accessible, but the Primate TAG with the AZA has an excellent mixed species survey.

Also re: Gibbons, along with Orangs, they have been mixed with small clawed otters and Malaysian Tapir with success. At brantford zoo in Ontario, they have a hand reared female lar gibbon that is successfully cohabitated with a green monkey. I know the Siabon hybrid originally at Yerkes (now at a sanctuary) is successfully housed with a macaque and spider monkeys as well.
 
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The Buttonwood Park Zoo has a few exhibits mixing various new world monkeys with multiple species of birds, reptiles, and fish. This is one of the newest and strongest sections of the zoo, and I had never seen such diverse mixed exhibits before. I couldn't find an up-to-date species list for the building, but this quote from BirdLover contains a species roster from when the exhibit opened:

Birdlover said:
There are 4 different main exhibits with monkeys plus several tanks with fish. There are 3 on the left and one on the right.

I will start with the one on the right it has Cotton-top Tamarin, Green Basilisk, North American Ruddy Duck, Big-headed Amazon River Turtle, Freshwater Stingray along with 3 species of fish.The cotton tops were off exhibit on my last visit.

The first exhibit on the left has Sun Conure, Bare-eyed Pigeon, Ringed Teal, Silver Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail, Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle, Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth, Golden-headed Lion Tamarin, Pygmy Marmoset, Red-sided Pacu, 2 species of catfish and several species of cichlids. A sign is still up for a Striped Gar but it is deceased.

In the next exhibit there is Peruvian Pigeon, African Pygmy Goose, Argentine Ruddy Duck, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Guira Cuckoo, Matamata Turtle, along with various species of tetras. The Goeldi's Monkeys are normally in this exhibit but on my last visit they were off exhibit and the Emperor Tamarins were there, though they are signed for the next exhibit. This was my first time seeing the Emperor Tamarins here as they have been off exhibit recently. The Goeldi's Monkey recently had a baby so that might be why they were off view.

In the last monkey exhibit there is Hawk-headed Parrot, Montezuma Quail, Green Aracari, Crested Quail-Dove, Southern Lapwing, Yellow-footed Tortoise and Bolivian Gray Titi Monkey.
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Phoenix: Saki, red brocket deer
Wildlife World: capuchin and lemur on their own islands with sitatunga free to roam
Houston: Gorilla and red river hogs

ZooTampa: previously silvery lutung and Bornean orangutans, but they didn't do that for long - but I do not know why. Also, previously golden lion tamarins in the main aviary along with birds, bats, and green iguana.
 
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SwampDonkey said:
Phoenix: Saki, red brocket deer
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There was no sign of the brocket deer when I went in January.
Anyways…
  • Henry Vilas: Rock Hyrax, Black and White Ruffed Lemur/Mantled Guereza
  • San Diego: Wolf’s Guenon, Pygmy Hippo
  • Cincinnati: Greater Galago, Indian Flying Fox, Aardvark
  • Columbus: Pygmy Slow Loris, Indian Crested Porcupine
 
There are a lot of mixes that can be done with primates!

Callicthrids tend to mix well with most other (small) neotropical primates, as well as yellow-foot/red-foot tortoises, agoutis, tamanduas, prehensile-tailed porcupines, and most tropical birds that are larger than them (I wouldn't recommend mixing primates with birds smaller than them, though). Sakis, squirrel monkeys, howlers, and titis can be mixed in pretty much any combination.

For Afro-Eurasian primates, a lot of mixes can occur within the group, colobus, guenons, mangabeys, and swamp monkeys can be mixed in a number of different combinations, and mandrills have successfully been mixed with a number of other primates as well. For non-primates, I would recommend ground-dwelling species only to limit competition, stuff like duikers and pygmy hippos work fine though. Langurs have successfully been mixed with gibbons, and mixes between langurs and Asian small-clawed otters have been attempted- although often unsuccessfully.

Within prosimians, there are plenty of places that mix lemur species together, and this tends to work fairly well. Ring-tailed lemurs, Ruffed Lemurs, and some Eulemur species have all been successful in mixes, I want to say there're places who have mixed sifakas as well. Lemurs can also be mixed with radiated tortoises and madagascar teals (presumably other waterfowl as well in non-zoogeographic mixes). Smithsonian National Zoo has red ruffed lemurs mixed with a chevrotain.

Great apes tend to be less commonly mixed than smaller primates. Buffalo Zoo has a pair of trumpeter hornbills in their gorilla exhibit, and a few places have gorillas mixed with colobus/cercopithecids, but those are the only gorilla mixes I'm aware of. Orangutan/gibbon has been done successfully, along with orangutan/tapir. I'm not aware of anyone doing this, but I'd suspect orangutan/suid mixes would also be a success.

Gibbons have been mixed with small-clawed otters (not always successful), lowland anoa, orangutans, malayan tapirs, and langurs.

That's what I'm aware of and can think of at the moment, but I'm sure other successful mixes occur as well. From what I understand, mixes with great apes are more common in European zoos, while in North America there are plenty of places mixing neotropical primates or lemurs, but beyond that mixes with primates are on the unusual side.
 
Neil chace said:
There are a lot of mixes that can be done with primates!

Callicthrids tend to mix well with most other (small) neotropical primates, as well as yellow-foot/red-foot tortoises, agoutis, tamanduas, prehensile-tailed porcupines, and most tropical birds that are larger than them (I wouldn't recommend mixing primates with birds smaller than them, though). Sakis, squirrel monkeys, howlers, and titis can be mixed in pretty much any combination.

For Afro-Eurasian primates, a lot of mixes can occur within the group, colobus, guenons, mangabeys, and swamp monkeys can be mixed in a number of different combinations, and mandrills have successfully been mixed with a number of other primates as well. For non-primates, I would recommend ground-dwelling species only to limit competition, stuff like duikers and pygmy hippos work fine though. Langurs have successfully been mixed with gibbons, and mixes between langurs and Asian small-clawed otters have been attempted- although often unsuccessfully.

Within prosimians, there are plenty of places that mix lemur species together, and this tends to work fairly well. Ring-tailed lemurs, Ruffed Lemurs, and some Eulemur species have all been successful in mixes, I want to say there're places who have mixed sifakas as well. Lemurs can also be mixed with radiated tortoises and madagascar teals (presumably other waterfowl as well in non-zoogeographic mixes). Smithsonian National Zoo has red ruffed lemurs mixed with a chevrotain.

Great apes tend to be less commonly mixed than smaller primates. Buffalo Zoo has a pair of trumpeter hornbills in their gorilla exhibit, and a few places have gorillas mixed with colobus/cercopithecids, but those are the only gorilla mixes I'm aware of. Orangutan/gibbon has been done successfully, along with orangutan/tapir. I'm not aware of anyone doing this, but I'd suspect orangutan/suid mixes would also be a success.

Gibbons have been mixed with small-clawed otters (not always successful), lowland anoa, orangutans, malayan tapirs, and langurs.

That's what I'm aware of and can think of at the moment, but I'm sure other successful mixes occur as well. From what I understand, mixes with great apes are more common in European zoos, while in North America there are plenty of places mixing neotropical primates or lemurs, but beyond that mixes with primates are on the unusual side.
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Birute Galdikas reported on a bearded pig eating a young orangutan, so something to bear in mind for squid-ape mixes… to say nothing of chimp predation of bush pig
 
- BioParque do Rio used to have quite a lot of mixed species exhibits containing primates. Some are still left, but most are either gone or are briefly under maintenance.
  • A pair of golden lion tamarins were mixed with a solitary tinamou until my second-to-last visit a month ago. The tamarins were removed and are most likely in the staff-only area.
  • A bare-faced curassow and a rusty-marginated guan live with two howlers (1.0 Red-handed and 1.0 Venezuelan red). In theory, they also share their exhibit with a lowland paca.
  • One of the island exhibits only holds Peruvian spider monkeys. In 2021, Gray's bald-faced sakis, Uta Hick's bearded sakis and a white-lipped tamarin lived with them.
  • The same tamarin lives with white-cheeked spider monkeys in the other island exhibit. Our late woolly monkey lived there as well.
  • Our female Sumatran orangutans live with a troop of crab-eating macaques.
  • We had tufted and yellow-breasted capuchins sharing an exhibit for a small amount of time.
  • There is a pair of baboons of two different species living together in an off-show enclosure.
- Guarulhos mixes their black-tufted marmosets with black-fronted titis;
- São Paulo mixed their late female lar gibbon with two hybrid orangutans;
- Sorocaba mixes their Uta Hick's bearded saki with weeper capuchins;
- Itatiba mixes their black-fronted titis with solitary tinamous. They also mix their bald uakari with a red-backed bearded saki;
- Lisbon mixes gorillas with black-and-white colobus monkeys;
- Busch Gardens Tampa had chimps and gorillas together in the late 60s.
 
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Obviously London has Coppery Titis and various tamarins with red-footed tortoises, Rodriguez flying foxes, Southern tamanduas and Linneaus’ Two-Toed Sloths.Alongside Moholi Bushbabies and Pottos with Malagasy Giant Jumping Rats.

Lemurs are often mixed together and I’ve seen several mixed lemur exhibits with various combinations of ring-tailed lemurs, black and white-ruffed lemurs, red-ruffed lemurs, black lemurs, mongoose lemurs, red-fronted lemurs and crowned lemurs at various places including Drusilla’s Park, Hemsley Conservation Centre and the Wildheart Trust in the Isle of Wight.
 
Some other mixes that I have seen at my local zoos.

As Neil Chace mentioned sifakas possibly being mixed with other lemurs, Cotswold Wildlife Park did used to have crowned sifakas in their mixed species lemur walkthrough. In addition to the walkthrough they also had them in a separate adjacent enclosure. Now they only have them in the separate enclosure. I don't know if there were any issues, but I believe they are just down to a pair now. That could also be an explanation for them not being in the walkthrough.

Another one was first diana monkeys and then later king colobus being mixed with crested porcupine at Marwell. The diana monkey mix lasted some time. The colobus not so long, but the area was redeveloped into a lemur walkthrough and the zoo went out of both species.
 
Some nice mixed exhibits that come to my mind:
- Osnabrück: Drill and Red Buffalo (I think at some point Diana monkeys lived with them)
- Rheine: Dschelada and Barbary Sheep (but common I would guess)
- Burgers Zoo (Rimba): Banteng, Siamang, Pig-Tailed Macaque, Burmese Brow-Antlered Deer, Common Hog Deer, Muntjacs
- Yorkshire Wildlife Park: Capybara, Mara, Agouti, White-Faced Saki
- Yorkshire Wildlife Park: Red Holwer Monkey, Greater Anteater
 
RonBurrgundy said:
Some nice mixed exhibits that come to my mind:
- Osnabrück: Drill and Red Buffalo (I think at some point Diana monkeys lived with them)
- Rheine: Dschelada and Barbary Sheep (but common I would guess)
- Burgers Zoo (Rimba): Banteng, Siamang, Pig-Tailed Macaque, Burmese Brow-Antlered Deer, Common Hog Deer, Muntjacs
- Yorkshire Wildlife Park: Capybara, Mara, Agouti, White-Faced Saki
- Yorkshire Wildlife Park: Red Holwer Monkey, Greater Anteater
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I think I'm right in saying that the siamang cannot access the ground level of the Burgers exhibit so do not interact with the other species.
 
oflory said:
I think I'm right in saying that the siamang cannot access the ground level of the Burgers exhibit so do not interact with the other species.
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I didn't know that and didn't notice during my visits. How are they kept up in the trees? Hotwire?
 
JVM said:
What kind of primate mixed exhibits are out there? Which ones have been successful and which have failed? Which monkeys are more open to other species or are not? I'm really curious.

I know colobus and swamp monkey seems to be a common mix, and gibbons seem to do well with orangutan but nothing else, and I have heard of Detroit mixing gorillas and drill before. Lincoln Park has kept callimico and black howler monkeys together. Denver held coppery titi with white-faced saki. I have also heard of forest buffalo being mixed with monkeys in the 90s at San Diego.

I also recall some failed mixes -- Lincoln Park could not allow drill and debrazza monkey together despite attempts, which lead partly to the drill being sent out, and the Bronx Zoo's Javan langurs and Small-clawed otters famously fell out. Tropic World had to remove langurs because the gibbons were too territorial, if I recall.
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The Denver Zoo had black howler monkeys sharing an exhibit with capybaras. A couple times I observed the juvenile howler grooming one of the capybaras. The capybara seemed to enjoy it.
 
Bioparc Valencia: Drill, mona guenon, pelicans, sitatunga, pygmy hippo
Bioparc Valencia: Western lowland gorilla, talapoin
Bioparc Valencia. Western lowland gorilla, grey mangabey
San Diego Zoo: Diverse guenons, pygmy hippo
Zoo et Parc de Thoiry: Sacred baboon, warthog, african elephant
 
The Houston Zoo has a few mixed species primate exhibits.

Allen's Swamp Monkeys with Schmidt's Red Tails

Black and Gold Howler Monkeys with Golden Lion Tamarins and Red-rumped Agouti

Orangutans with Fly River Turtles, Yellow-headed Temple Turtles, Malaysian Giant Pond Turtles, & Malaysian Paint River Terrapins. (All in moat but often engage with Orangs.)

The Ring Tailed Lemurs and Crowned Lemurs split time but both share their exhibit with Madagascar Big-headed Turtles.

The Natural Encounters Building's Indoor/Outdoor Rainforest exhibit is home to 5 species of Primate which often rotate but do share time on exhibit depending on their moods. The species include: Goeldi's Monkey, a Golden Lion Tamarin, Golden Headed Lion Tamarins, Pygmy Marmosets, and White-faced Saki. They share this exhibit with a Indian Star Tortoise, Victoria Crowned Pigeon, two Linneaus' Two Toed Sloths, and Imperial Pigeons.

And finally, as previously mentioned, the zoo's Gorillas share space with Red River Hogs.
 
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