Join our zoo community
snowleopard

Hamadryas Baboon Exhibit

August 4th, 2010.

Hamadryas Baboon Exhibit
snowleopard, 23 Sep 2010
    • snowleopard
      August 4th, 2010.
    • snowleopard
      Here is another one of the 1970's grottoes at Riverbanks Zoo, and this one has some kind of half-destroyed bridge that is supposed to replicate a real environment from northern Africa. Simple window dressing on an outdated enclosure.
    • Pertinax
      I would not have recognised the bridge for what its supposed to be. It looks more like a dilapitated climbing frame. The area size is okay but it would benefit from a much larger rocky outcrop in the central area for the baboons to climb on, one with caves, niches, ledges etc so you could see them exhibiting a range of normal behaviors. I also wonder if the trees are 'wired' to prevent abuse?
    • snowleopard
      The trees are definitely hotwired, so much of the exhibit is rockwork. Here is an article from 2006 about the unveiling of the bridge, which is based on a real dilapidated structure that had been overrun by baboons in Samburu Park in Kenya:

      New Hamadryas Baboons at Riverbanks Zoo | wltx.com
    • Pertinax
      Fascinating!;)

      So they had just five baboons in here then.. Any idea of the group size nowadays?
    • snowleopard
      According to ISIS there are 4 baboons (1.3), which does not make it an effective troop in comparison to the huge Hamadryas baboon gatherings at many European and Asian zoos (like Singapore).
    • Gilgamesh
      This exhibit was originally constructed for Kodiak bears it was heavily renovated back in 2006 to include more climbing opportunities for the baboons. Ibexes used to be mixed in with them before that. I think the Kodiak bears however lived in this exhibit from 1974 to 1984.
    • snowleopard
      The design firm CLR, which has created a number of top quality zoo exhibits over the years, will be altering this exhibit in the next year and a half in order to display grizzly bears. The moat will be filled in so that the public can get closer to the bears, and the baboons will be shifted to an adjacent section of the zoo.
    There are no comments to display.
  • Category:
    Riverbanks Zoo and Garden
    Uploaded By:
    snowleopard
    Date:
    23 Sep 2010
    View Count:
    3,899
    Comment Count:
    8