Went to the National Zoo today, mostly to check out the siamangs but also to see what else has been happening. As usual there is a lot of work going on up the back but no new areas open. It seems like there are some completed (and maybe even inhabited) exhibits back there but the bits in between are just not done yet. It will be really great when it's done, I think. The siamang exhibit is a bit less stark in person than it seems in photos (I've uploaded a few). It's definitely big enough, and has running water too which is great. It's very much a "National Zoo" exhibit (lots of artificial rock), but it does the job pretty well. The agoutis have taken up residence in one of the old koala enclosures (the sole remaining koala shares the next door exhibit with a pair of Parma Wallabies). They seem to have settled in pretty well here and the steep slope makes for good viewing for visitors. Unfortunately there is no signage for them yet, leading to lots of confused visitors. The National Zoo is usually pretty on-the-ball with this stuff so I assume it's in the works (but even just a temporary sign would not have gone astray). The cheetahs and generic tigers have swapped exhibits, with the cheetahs back down in the long exhibit near the bears and the generic tigers up in the new section near the new lemur enclosures. A better fit, for my money. The vast meerkat exhibit has been divided in two, which still leaves two very comfortably sized exhibits for them. Otherwise the zoo is pretty much as it ever was. Something I don't like much is that a lot of the sleeping boxes (for smaller mammals like tamarins, otters, squirrel monkeys) now have glass sides so that visitors can see in. This doesn't seem great for the animals' privacy. I couldn't see any brown bears and the exhibit did have some signs of being "empty", but I couldn't say definitively that any remaining bears are off display. EDIT: Having a look at the map at home now, I see that servals are back on display and I missed them! I didn't even think of looking at the map since I know my way around, but they seem to be tucked up behind the new lemur exhibits (you have to walk towards the "staff only" sign apparently). Oh well - one for next time!
I've been looking through recent Tripadvisor posts about National Zoo's Jamala Lodge and it does seem like there is only one brown bear left (the female named Darkle) - consistently only one bear is mentioned. Guests at Jamala can see certain animals otherwise non-viewable, like Darkle, and they also do a behind-the-scenes tour (also available to regular visitors to the zoo for extra cost) where they can see other species kept entirely off-show there like the white rhinos and maned wolves. No mentions of Cree the puma at all, so I suspect she has also died at some point. National Zoo is frustratingly poor at putting information out there regarding their animals.
Does it confirm that the brown bear is definitely off display? The signage and everything was still up when I was there, but I couldn't see her and the exhibit looked not quite derelict but not exactly inhabited either. One of the lodges also opens directly onto the exhibit so it would make sense for the Tripadvisor page to talk about her if she was still in there. It seems odd to have moved her out of that exhibit; I wonder if they're planning on moving something else in there (maned wolves maybe?).
no they just talk about her in relation to "the Bear Room" (so, if as you say, presumably just her indoor quarters for the on-show exhibit). My point was less that she was off-display (as I assumed) and more that there does appear to be only one left now.
And another article about the 4 Black and white ruffed lemurs : Lemur Quad Is Black-and-White…And 'Ruffed' All Over
