Montreal Biodome - Ring-tailed Lemur Exhibit

July 2008. Not a terribly large exhibit, and one that is indoors with very little climbing opportunities for the lemurs.

still a very nice exhibit.

I was not a fan of this temporary exhibit when I visited in the summer of 2008 (it was also brought back from June to November of 2009 due to popular demand), but one intriguing aspect of it was that technically it was a walk-through enclosure as visitors and lemurs were only separated by a low wall. That is almost a unique situation in North America!

Whereas here a walk-through lemur exhibit is almost a standard, particularly in small-to-medium sized places. The exhibits themselves range from distinctly average to superb - those at Blackpool, Dudley and Cotswold are among the better ones in the UK. Yorkshire WP's Lemur Wood is also very good for an almost brand new zoo - the lemurs have full access to very tall trees. I also like the raised walkway arrangement at Woburn.

And, of course, one of Europe's greatest exhibits - Masoala - is basically the walk-through lemur enclosure taken to its logical (and glorious) extreme!

But there are a lot of very dull ones about - the smaller places often have just basic fields with a climbing frame and a few sleepy Ring-taileds or Black-and-White Ruffeds which can be rather underwhelming!