Ok , so I checked ztl this morning , and I found out that Praha kept indri(s) in 1931 and more recently (and surprisingly) in 2001 ! I did some researches about it and tried to find a pdf. of the reference but I couldn't find anything ... Does anyone have info about it ? Note : I'm sorry if it's not the right place to ask and/or if there's already a topic about it
Has anybody anywhere tried keeping indris in captivity in the last several decades? Have there been any captive ones in Madagascar even?
Thanks for the link. It says that the longevity record was one in San Diego that lasted 7 days in 1965.
There is indri in semi captivity in Madagascar and sure enough their longevity is a little longer than the record given for SD Zoo.
whenever Indri come up on Zoochat, it is usually pointed out quite quickly that the time when the few individuals were kept in zoos outside Madagascar was a long time ago and husbandry techniques for all sorts of animals have vastly improved since then. Possibly they would do better in zoos nowadays, especially with there being more expertise in keeping related lemurs like sifaka.
The longevity record in "full captivity" was set in Ivoloina Zoo in eastern Madagascar when a young individual was kept for slightly over a year. There are some indri in semi-captivity, which is more semi-freedom, which seem to be doing fine in Madagascar. Maybe it is now possible to keep them alive for prolonged periods, but the proboscis monkey debacle makes me a bit sceptical...
was it a debacle? Wasn't it more just bad luck which saw two of them die? I wouldn't like to see indri exported from Madagascar because there would no doubt be deaths before they became established (if they became established), but the proboscis monkeys did come surplus from an established captive population so not quite the same I think.
4 out of 5 died in a period of 4 years... Keeping them on Madagascar would surely be favourable, if the move to a breeding program is made, though iconic they may be, I think money is better invested in other Madagascan species and even better in connecting the remnants of the rainforest (which is already done on smaller scales apparently in Madagascar)...
I can assure you there was no living Indri during the time I visit the zoo, lets say 1989. And even before, if the zoo ever had indi on display, it would be mentioned in some article or another, and I´ve never found anything. The article which is source of the post is: Anděra M.,, 2001: Zoologické oddělení Národního muzea a Zoo Praha – 70 let spolupráce. – Gazella, 28: 243-257. Miloš Anděra works at Prague National Museum, in animal collection. The article (that I don´t have access to) talks about 70 years of collaboration between National Museum and Prague Zoo. The zoo donates its dead animals to this museum regularly. Apparently, the zoo donated a dead indri(-s) to the museum sometime between 1931 and 2001. The zoo keeps reliable animal records only since ca beginning of WWII. That leads to deduction the zoo got its hands on indri sometimes before WWII and it begs question, if that animal was alive when it came to the zoo, or dead already.
So that means some translation error is the source of this entry and if the indri would have made it alive to the zoo it must have been before WWII, but even that cannot be confirmed...
I visited the Perinet reserve in 1987 and saw a large enclosure near the wild indris. Indris were kept there to prepare them to be sent to Paris. All of them died, despite the enclosure encompassing native trees with suitable food. As the experiment failed, no indris were exported. I would be surprised if the authorities had changed their minds since then.
I just re-checked Zootierliste. It actually says "between 1931 and 2001" not that indri were present in "1931 and 2001". So basically the article in the journal would have said that an indri went to the museum from the zoo at some point in the 70 years before the date of publication (2001), but it must not have given an actual date.
Apenheul imported a total of 5 male proboscis monkeys, and 4 of them died. The sole survivor was sent back to Singapore. The 4 dead monkeys all died from different causes, so it`s hard to say if this was a string of exeptionally bad luck or the conditions in Europe that killed them, but it was certainly a disaster.
