Traditional Monkey Houses

snowleopard

snowleopard

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Are traditional monkey houses becoming extinct in major American zoos? Perusing the book "America's Best Zoos" I found that there are really only 10 monkey houses left standing within the 60 best zoos found in the United States. There are plenty of buildings housing great apes, and numerous gargantuan rain forest complexes that often exhibit primates, but for better or worse the era of old-style monkey houses is coming to an end.

Over the past couple of decades many American zoos have begun to showcase their monkeys in outdoor exhibits, which are usually lush islands or netted habitats. Rain forest buildings often have primates in similar enclosures, and the buildings that mainly keep monkeys indoors year-round are becoming obsolete. Of the 10 that I found in America's 60 best zoos there are 2 zoos that have primates housed next to various other types of animals and so in reality there are only 8 major zoos with buildings specifically containing monkeys.

Monkey Houses:

Bronx Zoo - Monkey House
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo - Monkey Pavilion
Cleveland Zoo - Primate, Cat + Aquatics Building
Lincoln Park Zoo - Primate House
Milwaukee County Zoo - Primates of the World
Philadelphia Zoo - Primate Reserve
Pittsburgh Zoo - Tropical Forest
Saint Louis Zoo - Primate House
Tulsa Zoo - Conservation Center (Primate, Bird, Reptile, Fish Building)
Utah's Hogle Zoo - Primate Building

I have visited all 10 of the zoos in the last few years, and it might sound harsh but I think that 9 out of 10 of the monkey houses range from extremely poor to downright awful. In my opinion only Saint Louis has a half-decent monkey house, and even that is arguably the weakest element of an otherwise outstanding zoo. No wonder such buildings rarely exist in major zoos!
 
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The Bronx also has a stand-alone Monkey House--one of the original buildings on Astor Court. It has in recent decades been home to South American callitrichids and squirrel and capuchin monkeys. In it's earlier incarnations, it displayed a wide range of primates, including great apes and (briefly and infamously) a Mbuti Pygmy from the Congo--Ota Benga.

It is one of the most antiquated and least satisfactory exhibits at the Bronx, and I am sure there are plans to convert it into somthing more appropriate, as has been done with the neighboring Lion, Elephant and Bird Houses.
 
@reduakari: thanks for reminding me about the Bronx Zoo's monkey house, and that adds yet another outdated and somewhat disappointing building to my list. With all of the fantastic award-winning habitats at that great New York City zoo it is no wonder that I overlooked a structure that will almost certainly be overhauled in the next decade.
 
San Francisco Zoo's "Primate Discovery Center" opened in the mid-1980s as a modern version of the classic "monkey house." It was outmoded the day it opened, and pretty quickly fell into disrepair.
 
I stumbled upon this old thread the other night and had a good think afterward. While I have been rather vocal about the disappearance of Small Mammal Houses, I wasn't aware just how few zoos still had monkey buildings.

I do think a major component in this was the investment in large rainforest buildings in the eighties and nineties as replacements for monkey houses - while many of those exhibits are memorable, they have also largely aged to mixed results. Many of them were originally built intending to accommodate larger species - orangutan, tapirs, leopards - which as keystone species in the exhibits were able to significantly overshadow monkeys just as they often do birds and reptiles, and in the process, monkeys became less iconic and more ornamental, competing for space and attention with a wider variety of animals. It's also worth noting in some cases the monkey habitats were not necessarily more naturalistic, educational or spacious as those in primate houses built during the same period. The larger animals have often since needed to be moved outdoors or acted as blights on the buildings; but while new developments for megafauna have continued, including for apes (gorilla and orangutan especially) that are very charismatic and popular, there has really been much less investment in monkeys. The main exceptions on my mind are northern zoos investing in Japanese snow monkeys as replacements for inferior monkey islands.

As with small mammal buildings, primate buildings have largely been victim to thirty years of inertia under the assumption these types of buildings are inherently unnecessary and inferior to habitat-based exhibits; this has resulted in a lack of innovation or exploration in this area. Outdated buildings remain outdated *because* they are outdated. Primates of the World at Milwaukee, if renovated, would become a jungle complex according to the former master plan, not a better primate building. I know Saint Louis is one of the exceptions, renovating their old monkey house to add canopy trails a few years ago - but this is a recent development and from what I know, it seems like it is an evolution of ideas piloted with orangutan, then gibbons and only just now reaching monkeys, and this could be a rewarding way to modify existing primate holdings and create new ones. I do think it has been unwise to view monkey buildings as an outdated concept and they can still make excellent exhibits with effort. They can be active, charismatic animals with a modern design focus. I also think these exhibits allow more species-based education, which has sometimes been lost in biome-based buildings which logically prioritize habitat education.

To look for a positive ideal, I think Denver's Primate Panorama is the best of both worlds - Jewels of the Emerald Forest resembles older primate buildings, with individual indoor dayrooms with climbing structures containing lemurs, tamarins, marmosets, and the odd small mammal, along with a number of outdoor habitats for tropical primates, many of them lush and immersive, and with both indoor and outdoor habitats filled with climbing structures; the same is mirrored within the same complex at the Great Ape House, with an older-style dayroom and expansive outdoor facilities. The entire complex includes a few notable rainforest animals as well but is still absolutely themed around primates, with thirty species reported at one time and as many exhibit spaces. Three decades later is still one of the best primate complexes in the nation, partly because almost no other zoo has dedicated as much ambition and scale to this group of animals in that timeframe. (I suspect an exception but not sure the timing is right.)

In short, I think certain kinds of zoo buildings have been victim to a lack of innovation, including monkey houses, eaving us with outdated buildings, but that it's entirely possible to present these animals in a modernistic style, if institutional interest and investment happen to align.
 
snowleopard said:
@reduakari: thanks for reminding me about the Bronx Zoo's monkey house, and that adds yet another outdated and somewhat disappointing building to my list. With all of the fantastic award-winning habitats at that great New York City zoo it is no wonder that I overlooked a structure that will almost certainly be overhauled in the next decade.
Click to expand...

It has unfortunately been over 10 years since that post and the Monkey House is still yet to be renovated. Maybe in another decade we can check back and hope for better luck? :p
 
To look for a positive ideal, I think Denver's Primate Panorama is the best of both worlds - Jewels of the Emerald Forest resembles older primate buildings, with individual indoor dayrooms with climbing structures containing lemurs, tamarins, marmosets, and the odd small mammal, along with a number of outdoor habitats for tropical primates, many of them lush and immersive, and with both indoor and outdoor habitats filled with climbing structures; the same is mirrored within the same complex at the Great Ape House, with an older-style dayroom and expansive outdoor facilities. The entire complex includes a few notable rainforest animals as well but is still absolutely themed around primates, with thirty species reported at one time and as many exhibit spaces. Three decades later is still one of the best primate complexes in the nation, partly because almost no other zoo has dedicated as much ambition and scale to this group of animals in that timeframe. (I suspect an exception but not sure the timing is right.)
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To your point, "Jewels of the Emerald Forest" is a renovation of a 1970 Primate House, updated significantly in the mid-90s from its original tile-walled "bathroom" design. The entire Primate Panorama complex is still quite good, although the faux-African architecture feels a bit dated and the inclusion of red river hogs and sengis breaks the theme.
 
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While not a "house", ZooTampa has Primate World, a major section of the zoo dedicated to primates.

*Edit
That is to say, that some zoos managed to transition to a outdoor natural zoo environment while still maintaining an area dedicated to one type of animal, without making it a general "rainforest" building or area.
 
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Another remaining monkey house is Como Zoo's Primate Building, which has been around since at least the 1980's. It's a little rough around the edges, and it is a shame species like Patas Monkey and Geoffroy's Spider Monkey don't have outdoor access, but for all intense and purposes its a fine building.
 
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