The sifaka thread

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Is there anybody here who doesn't think that sifakas are awesome?

I have been happily watching Coquerel's sifakas at the Los Angeles Zoo for several years, watching them joyfully bounce around their home and mellowly chill between bounces.

Ituri recently brought to my attention that there are now thought to be 9 species of sifakas, which I had not been paying attention to.

According to Wikipedia there are these species:
Diademed Sifaka, Propithecus diadema
Milne-Edwards' Sifaka, Propithecus edwardsi
Silky Sifaka, Propithecus candidus
Perrier's Sifaka, Propithecus perrieri
Coquerel's Sifaka, Propithecus coquereli
Verreaux's Sifaka, Propithecus verreauxi
Von der Decken's Sifaka, Propithecus deckenii
Crowned Sifaka, Propithecus coronatus
Golden-crowned Sifaka, Propithecus tattersalli

Are all of these species in captivity? Are there any species in the U.S. other than Coquerel's?

What Zoochatter holds the record for most sifaka species seen? Is it possible to see them all without spending years hacking one's way through the Madagascan forest?

Sifaka enthusiasts unite.
 
From doing a survey of the gallery it looks like we have Coquerel's sifaka in the U.S. and our European friends have crowned sifaka.

Toddy saw Verraux's sifaka in a semi-wild reserve in Madagascar. There are a couple of Verraux's from European zoos also it looks like - are they still around does anybody know?

It sounds like there were Diademed sifakas at the Duke lemur center in the past. Did anybody here get to see them?
 
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The only remaining outside their native Madagascar are Coquerel's in North America and crowned in Europe. In addition to Diademed, Duke also had golden-crowned. Not too hard to see most of the species in Madagascar, but if you wanted to mark off all species it would require a lot of travelling around the country, as some of the species are restricted to quite remote and infrequently visited northern regions. Unsurprisingly, the rarest also require a fair deal of time (more than most tourists have) to have a good chance at seeing them.
 
condor said:
The only remaining outside their native Madagascar are Coquerel's in North America and crowned in Europe. In addition to Diademed, Duke also had golden-crowned. Not too hard to see most of the species in Madagascar, but if you wanted to mark off all species it would require a lot of travelling around the country, as some of the species are restricted to quite remote and infrequently visited northern regions. Unsurprisingly, the rarest also require a fair deal of time (more than most tourists have) to have a good chance at seeing them.
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If I ever become a millionaire I am hiring you as my travel agent and safari guide, condor. There seems to be no organism I can think of that you don't know where it is:). Thanks for the info, as always.
 
DavidBrown said:
From doing a survey of the gallery it looks like we have Coquerel's sifaka in the U.S. and our European friends have crowned sifaka.

Toddy saw Verraux's sifaka in a semi-wild reserve in Madagascar. There a couple of Verraux's from European zoos also it looks like - are they still around does anybody know?

It sounds like there were Diademed sifakas at the Duke lemur center in the past. Did anybody here get to see them?
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All the sifakas labelled as Verraux's sifaka in Europe are mislabelled, and are in fact Crowned Sifaka - which of course, used to be classified as a subspecies of Verraux's.
 
In Europe 3 species have been kept :
Diadem sifaka 1 at London Zoo around 1908
Verreaux sifaka 1 at Wroclaw Zoo around 1900
Crowned sifaka the only species still to be seen in Europe :
Besancon
Mulhouse
Paris Vincennes
Apeldoorn
Cotswold
Port Lympne
Belfast
At the moment only Belfast and Apeldoorn have regulary breeding-results however they only seem to produce males so the future doesn't seems to bright :(
 
There are now 5 females in Europe, two at Belfast, 1 at Apenheul, 1 at Vincennes and 1 at besancon as far as I know! Along with a captive pair I'm Madagascar the future is looking better!
 
I wonder why zoos like St. Louis and Los Angeles still say that Coquerel's Sifakas are subspecies of Verreaux's Sifaka. Were Coquerel's separated and granted full species level very recently?
 
vogelcommando said:
At the moment only Belfast and Apeldoorn have regulary breeding-results however they only seem to produce males so the future doesn't seems to bright :(
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Hi mate,

Whats really sad is that allot of these males are likely to lead solitary lives at maturity.

Last year l only went to Sacramento zoo to see the Sifaka, the zoo is average to poor and the solitary Sifaka was in a fairly small enclosure where he will most likely spend the rest of his life alone.

I could be wrong but l think ATM there are 17 Sifakas in Europe, obviously not a foundation population.

I am not convinced that having Sifakas in captivity as animal ambassadors is enough justification to continue efforts to breed the current stock.

Maybe zoos could focus on insitu conservation with this species and not try to establish a captive breeding program, as they will always have an oversupply of males.

I have read that Madagascar is in real trouble and all lemur species, particularly those found around the centre of the island have suffered significant habitat loss, with coastal areas now under significant threat as well. So perhaps insitu is not ideal but obviously a far better solution for the Sifaka.

David Sifaks are my new 2nd favourite animal and I don't think any zoo will ever house them in a manner that allows for true appreciation of there unique movement, so maybe zoos as l have said leave them to the wild!
 
There is not much nature left, but apart from tattersalls (or golden crowned) sifaka, all sifaka occurr in protected areas also. But these are not that big and many species are confined to small ranges. Fortunately many zoos are already concerned with Madagascar (although most with lemurs...) and there are lots of in-situ conservation programms running.

btw. if everything goes right there will be photo's of silky sifaka uploaded on zoochat next year :p
 
Having toured 90 of America's 97 best zoos between the years 2008-2012 I've seen a number of sifaka exhibits but they have always been for the Coquerel's species. Sacramento has a fairly nice enclosure for the species, as does Houston and Bronx (although restricted to an all-indoor environment). Below are examples of 7 Coquerel's sifaka exhibits found in American zoos, and Omaha recently held the species but now has black-and-white ruffed lemurs in their place within the Expedition Madagascar complex. Does Los Angeles keep sifakas in one of the 1960's-era c-shaped roundhouse cages?

Houston Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/572/world-primates-coquerels-sifaka-exhibit-195459/

Sacramento Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/948/coquerels-sifaka-exhibit-233545/

Saint Louis Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/602/coquerels-sifaka-exhibit-171369/

Philadelphia Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/837/primate-reserve-coquerels-sifaka-exhibit-177448/

Cincinnati Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/556/jul-2012-coquerels-sifaka-exhibit-279272/

Bronx Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/547/bronx-zoo-corquels-sifaka-exhibit-328690/

Maryland Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/1042/african-journey-coquerels-sifaka-exhibit-178443/
 
My personal favourite sifaka enclosure is Madagascar at Cotswold Wildlife Park, not specifically a sifaka exhibit but it's a walk through enclosure with several species of lemur, birds, tortoises and it does have a sifaka featured. Possibly the only walk through with one in, it's definitely unique in the UK at least.
 
I have seen three species: Coquerel's, Verreaux's and crowned sifakas, although I think they were also classified as Propithecus verreauxi when I saw them.
 
While watching the sifaka family there, a keeper at Houston zoo last year told me that all the sifakas in the U.S. are managed by Duke University, which mantains the breeding program and also has the largest captive population at their lemur center.
 
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