Which Zoos have the best Madagascar Exhibits?
- Thread starter Gomphothere
- Start date
Interesting--the Noah's Ark default position, LOL. In the wild, they are solitary and territorial. Female territories do not overlap with each other, but male territories do and also with multiple female territories with an apparently promiscuous or polygynous mating system. Given that territories in the wild are large (30-40 ha for females and 125-215 ha for males) and the inherent limitations of space in captivity, a 1.1 arrangement is probably the only one that would avoid serious conflict.
On a related topic, are there any zoos in the US besides Omaha and Bronx that actually have dedicated Madagascar exhibits? I’m under the impression from this website that they’re generally more of a European thing.
Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head for major Madagascar exhibits, they aren't super common in US. There are lots of smaller-scale ones though.
This is most likely because of the lack of Malagasy diversity in North America. It could also be because many North American zoos only care about exhibiting lemurs and the occasional fossa in larger pan African areas as opposed to individual Madagascar exhibits.
European zoos don’t tend to have clearly delineated zones and named exhibits, that’s a very North American thing, so our zoos may have an area of the zoo with a few Madagascan species in it but in the vast majority of cases these exhibits aren’t actually generally named in geographical terms. The only large zoos I can think of with strictly geographically delineated zones are Pairi, Planckandael and Vincennes, with all three being relatively new developments (of course Vincennes is an older zoo but the entire zoo was renovated a few years back).
Brandywine just opened up a dedicated Madagascar exhibit, with ring-tailed lemurs, black-and-white ruffed lemurs, crowned lemurs, radiated tortoises and helmeted guineafowl. (I personally hope they end up getting more species like sifaka and fossa, but that's just me).
Not exactly major then, is it?
San Francisco Zoo is building a new Madagascar Center, featuring several species of Mammals, Birds, and Ectotherms native to the island, in addition to their already impressive Lemur Enclosures.
Ueno Zoo has the Aye-aye forest. They currently have Aye-aye along with outdoor enclosures for ring-tailed and black and white ruffed lemur, and fossa (idk if the latter is still around). In the past the zoo had grey bamboo lemurs which are now replace with black lemurs.
Jacob Blackwood
Well-Known Member
I like Chester Zoo's
It has Ring tailed lemur, Black Lemur, White belted ruffed lemur, Crowned Lemur, Red ruffed lemur, Fossa and Coquerel's Sifaka
It has Ring tailed lemur, Black Lemur, White belted ruffed lemur, Crowned Lemur, Red ruffed lemur, Fossa and Coquerel's Sifaka