Best gentle / bamboo lemur enclosures and holdings / collections in zoos

I wanted to start this thread specifically about the gentle / bamboo lemurs within zoos and discuss what the best enclosures for these species look like and what are the best holdings out there.

Evidently the Haplalemur are neither as diverse a genus as the Eulemurs nor kept by as many zoos as the Varecia lemurs so there may not be too much to discuss but I thought it might be worth trying anyway.

What are the best enclosures for and holdings / collections of the Haplalemurs in zoos in your opinion?

Please feel free to post replies and pictures in the comment section below.

 

* I know the greater bamboo lemur is not included within the Haplalemur genus but for the sake of this thread and discussion lets include it.

 

Paris Zoo appears to keep the greater bamboo lemur

Shots of greater bamboo lemurs at the Paris zoo.



I cannot find any pictures of their enclosure or the signage though so I have no idea what the overall display for these look like so perhaps someone who has been there and seen these animals could tell some more about this ?


Photo credits to @Tomek and @vogelcommando.

 

So it seems as if there are currently five greater bamboo lemurs that are kept at the Paris zoo and these are apparently all females.

There was apparently a male placed within the group in 2014 but there was some doubt as to whether the grouping would work as it was a single male and three reproductively viable females so this individual was probably removed.

The current animals kept are named: Belinta (named after a town in Madagascar), Majunga (named after a port in Madagascar), Eosie, Fitia (the Malagasy word for affection / love) and Phinea.

Apparently the youngest of these is Phinea who was born at the zoo in 2016.

Here is a quote from their website which gives a bit more detail on the different characters of these animals :

"Belinta is a peaceful female who shares the trees of the aviary with her daughter Majunga, born in 2015, and three other females: Eosie, the dominant female, a doyenne with a strong character, Fitia and her daughter Phinea, born in 2016. The birth of Phinea is the only birth of a greater bamboo lemur to have taken place in France that year."

 

@gentle lemur needs to be kept in an enclosure? Why, is he a menace to society?

 

Keeping Alan within an enclosure would impoverish zoochat of some brilliant photography so I would hope not.

 

Maybe with all his photographs of Lisnangs, Angwantibos, and other rare beauties he might need to be locked up for making people jealous as hell.

 

Paris actually holds 2 species of Bamboo lemur, in rotating exhibits. Prolemur simus are always on exhibit from what I know, Hapalemur occidentalis switch exhibits on a daily basis (according to a keeper) with one of the Callithrichids exhibits.

The Prolemurs have a good exhibit, I believe they don't have any access to the outside though, their exhibit being in the big Tropical house. It offers enough climbing opportunities but they're very discreet and it's hard to tell how much they make out of their enclosure, I only see them when there's food around.
It's the best I've seen, not saying it's incredible, but compared to Köln, Mulhouse and Lyon, it's without a doubt the better one with maybe the only problem being the full indoor although very green and planted exhibit.
The worst one I've seen was probably the off-show cage for a single Lake Aloatra individual in Plzen.

 

As for Bamboo/Gentle lemur exhibits, I've only seen Hapalemur griseus at Cincinnati, and I can't say there exhibit was amazing, the last one died I think. I never saw it moving, mainly just looked like a big ball of fluff in a fake tree. It was red-lit when I went there, and I don't remember it being terribly big. Here is a picture from moebelle, taken in 2019.

 

Thank you for your reply @Rayane !

That is a shame about the Paris lemurs not having access to an outside enclosure as I think this is always something beneficial for primates but it still sounds like a pretty good enclosure (wish there were some pictures to see of it though).

The single individual kept at Plzen doesn't sound great as these animals don't do very well on their own.

 

Plzen now has 1.1.1, probably all exhibited together but at the time of my visit one was off-show, maybe for medical reasons? Not sure. Their exhibit in the Madagascar House is not great anyway, so on-show or not, definitely not on the best exhibits list.
I found an image on google that gives you an idea of the exhibit in Paris, it's 3 times the length visible in the picture, more or less. The plants have also grown a bit since the picture was taken, making it a bit darker and greener.

 

Just a guess but the Lac Alaotran gentle lemurs at Plzen may have been separated because of intragroup aggression possibly as despite the "gentle" in their name they can be quite aggressive apparently.

The greater bamboo lemur enclosure doesn't look too bad at all and does look quite large even in that picture. Many of the enclosures in the Paris zoo are quite impressive actually though I do still think it would be nice if these particular lemurs had access to an outdoor enclosure.

 

That is really interesting about the Western lesser bamboo lemurs at the Paris zoo.

Do you think this is because they still lack an exhibit of their own or is it for some other reason ?

Unfortunately there is no reference to this species on their website (other than them stating that is part of their breeding programe) but I'll check it out on google and see what I can find.

 

I've seen the type specimen of the golden bamboo lemur at Tsimbazaza Zoo in Antanarivo. The pair wasn't kept in the best gentle bamboo lemur enclosure, but seeing the type specimen of a newly discovered species is a unique experience.

 

I bet it was @Dassie rat ! that sounds incredible !

What do you remember about the species and seeing it ?

Could you describe it if you dont mind ?

 

All I can say is this...

Why on earth was a diurnal species being kept in a nocturnal house under a red light ?

 

No idea, It was housed with pottos and they are nocturnal species, so it was for the pottos well-being as well. These animals are technically Cathemeral, they are active at day and night, so it sort of makes sense. Sort of.

 

Well apparently they are varying accounts of the species having crepuscular behavior but still it seems very odd to me that it would be kept in a nocturnal house.

 

Its 2 nocturnal houses on a large jungle trail thats part outside, one for africa and one for asia. Next to this exhibit used to be for Genets, Bushbabies, and Aye-ayes. If its varying, than it is hypothesized to be Cathemeral, they forage at day and night. A recent study for orangutans actually caught them on camera foraging in the dead of night for fruit, so maybe the gentle lemur is similar as this.

 

The Lyon zoo enclosure for greater bamboo lemurs doesn't look too bad actually, not the best in the world but not terrible by any means.

The signage on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired.




Photo credit to @Gavial.