Tarsiers in North American zoos

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sebbe67

Well-Known Member
Aim intrested in knowing more about the history of this group of mammals in North American zoos, they have been brought in at several occasions and to my knowledge over 20 was imported from Mindano in the 1960s or 1970s, from what I know there is no Tarsiers being keept in captivity anywhere in North America anymore. I dont know which species that has been imported to USA or Candada and would love to hear more about which specific species/subspecies.

But I would be intrested to hear if anyone knows any place that keept them in the past, which species and for how long time.

I know that Tarsius syrichta carbonarius has been keept in the following places in the past.

Philadelphia Zoological Garden
Brookfield Zoo
Smithsonian National Zoological Park

Thanks,
 
The german database tells me that:

Tarsius syrichta carbonarius has been kept at Zoo Frankfurt from 1964 till 1977. They never bred them. And later Tarsius syrichta (no subspecies noted) was also kept at Frankfurt Zoo between 1982 and 1992. In that period they bred once.

How many individuals they kept over that period i would not know, but i'd estimate one pair and i would be surprised if they weren't kept in the famous Grzimek House (the nocturnal house).
 
I also know that at one point the Minnesota zoo exhibited tarsiers, I could not tell you what species however.
 
Re:Tarsiers in US Zoos/Welcome to this site

Hello everyone, I am new to this site and have been to zoos/aquariums/wildlife parks all over the world.

Regarding Tarsiers - Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, OH may still have a single Western Tarsier exhibited in their Rainforest Building. I met with the General Curator, at the time-it was August 2005, who let us go into the exhibit and take some good photos. It was in a diurnal bamboo filled exhibit with Larger Malayan chevrotains. They were looking to acquire additional specimens, but with no success. By the way, Cleveland has one of the largest collections of primate species in any North American zoo, some in wonderful spaces, some in old school exhibits.
Was in Frankfurt last year and met with keepers. They no longer keep tarsier ( but we did get to go in the enclosure with the aye-aye-Amazing animal) and their new building for gorillas, bonobos, and orangs was under construction and looked like a spectacular improvement.
Singapore ( 2006 visit ) was keeping a very active tarsier at the Night Safari, next to the Zoo.
Cincinnati and San Diego have exhibited tarsiers in the past- believe they were Philippine species, but don't quote me on that - saw them in Cincinnati's Nocturnal House probably 12 years ago. They are no longer in either collection.

Eric in Portland, Oregon
 
I have seen the Tarsiers in Cincinnati in the late 90s. This is one of the animals I want to photograph this summer. Unfortunately they no longer exhibit this animal in their nocturnal house. However, they do have other prosimians like potto and galagos.
 
The only way to see the PHILIPPINE Tarsier is at the Philippine Tarsier Foundation in Bohol, Philippines along with some other native animals (macaque, palm civet, etc.)
 
If you take trouble to go to Philippines, wild tarsiers can be reliably seen with the help of guides. Same goes for great philippine eagle, anoa and babirussa and crested macaques.

BTW, they are apparently very stress-prone animals which don't thrive in noisy enclosures. That's why you get bushbabys in zoos instead.
 
@ Potto, I personally would never visit the tarsier place on Bohol. Photos I have seen of the treatment of the tarsiers by and for tourists there make me cringe. Jurek7 is quite right: if you're in the Philippines do it properly and just go find some wild ones. [but anoa, babirusa and crested macaques are of course from Sulawesi not the Philippines]

@Writhedhornbill, make sure you take a good torch (I would suggest one with a red filter to not disturb the animals too much, but that's just me). If you do what the other tourists don't, and go out at night, you'll find some really nice critters out doing their thing.
 
Shame on me :( It was late here and I mixed Philippines and Sulawesi.

It is Sulawesi tarsier which is viewable in the wild for ecotourists.
 
I've visted Cleveland in 2005 only to see the last tariser left in a western zoo. The animal was very old at this time, it came from Washington to Cleveland some years before. Fortunately, I could go into the exhbit and could make some good pictures. Unfortuantely, the animal died in 2006.

Frankfurt Zoos imported 9 Mindanao Tarisres in 1964. The group live din the Monkey hous ein a littel nocturanal exhibit. This was a testing for the big nocturnal house which was in the planning phase at this time. The group has bred two times, but the babies died shortly after the birth. After the opening of the Grizmekhouse, the Tariers were kept there. In the formely tariser exhibit are now living slender loris.

The Max-Plank-Institue in Frankfurt has kept Tarsiers ,too.The Skansen Akvariet in Stockholm has kept and bred Tariers also.
 
I studied in Chicago in the 1980s and Lincoln Park zoo never had tarsiers, they had galagos in the small mammal house. It was Brookfield zoo that had tarsiers in their small mammal house, in a tall exhibit in the nocturnal section. I still have a guidebook from Brookfield zoo with a photo of one of their tarsiers. Though i went to Brookfield various times during that period, i never saw the tarsiers, which were very shy.
 
Lincoln Park Zoo received 4.3 Philippine tarsiers in November 1985, but I don't know how long they survived for. (An earlier shipment in 1973 were all dead on arrival!)
 
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It is possible that the tarsiers recieved by Lincoln Park zoo ended up at Brookfield zoo, which most definitly had some on exhibit in the eighties. Remember these are both zoos in the Chicago area.
 
carlos77 said:
It is possible that the tarsiers recieved by Lincoln Park zoo ended up at Brookfield zoo, which most definitly had some on exhibit in the eighties. Remember these are both zoos in the Chicago area.
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Brookfield did have Philippine tarsiers as well, but I don't know if they were from the same shipment or a different lot. There were a number of exports from the Philippines (as well as much fewer from Borneo).

At a guess I would say that the Lincoln Park ones simply didn't live very long (most tarsiers didn't) so that's why you didn't see them.
 
further to the above, one of the Lincoln Park tarsiers was pregnant on arrival, gave birth in 1986 and the baby survived for three months. So they actually were at the zoo for a reasonably extended period.
 
So in conclusion both LPZ and Brookfield had tarsiers in the eighties, but i am certain that only Brookfield publicly exhibited their tarsiers for various years. I still wonder if the LPZ tarsiers did not end up at Brookfield.
 
carlos77 said:
So in conclusion both LPZ and Brookfield had tarsiers in the eighties, but i am certain that only Brookfield publicly exhibited their tarsiers for various years. I still wonder if the LPZ tarsiers did not end up at Brookfield.
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the Brookfield ones may have indeed come from LPZ, or perhaps just as likely from Duke. As far as I can see, in 1985 there were two shipments of Philippine tarsiers into the USA. The first, in May, was of twenty-seven animals (plus one baby born en route) for research purposes at Duke; seven of these went to Cincinnati Zoo. The same year, in November, LPZ imported seven Philippine tarsiers.

The next import was in 1986 which was of 1.2 Philippine tarsiers to Cincinnati and 0.3 to San Diego (the two surviving San Diego ones later went to Cincinnati).

That was apparently the last Philippine tarsier import into the USA. So Brookfield's must have come from either LPZ or Duke. (It looks like the imports before 1985 were in 1983 and 1984 to Duke from Skansen in Sweden; and before that 1973 to LPZ).
 
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