Here is an article on the Sifaka exhibit: Endangered lemurs, cute and playful, valuable additions to SF Zoo - San Francisco Chronicle In addition, a guanaco was born on August 20: SF Zoo announces birth of baby guanaco - SFGate
Not yet, but probably in the next few years. Construction for the Chimpanzee exhibit expansion has already begun. The Zoo is serious about keeping chimps in their collection. The new curator of Primates came specifically to oversee the project. The first stage is to turn a section of the pachyderm building into a new indoor area for the chimps, via an overhead walkway for the chimps from their old exhibit. Then, the zoo will fill in each moated exhibit, connecting them, and make them into a netted enclosure. Then, an adjoining Orang exhibit will be built between the Chimps and Sifakas.
That all sounds like good progress. Hopefully it will result in a good chimp exhibit. Do you know what the plans for the nocturnal primate hall are? Is it permanently shut down now that the aye-ayes are gone?
They're going to use it in the future but they're not sure for what. Most likely some time of mammal(s), though not neccesacarily Primates. Personally, I think the Zoo should expand its Prosimian collection. There are 4 seperate encolures inside. They could have Bush babies, Pottos, Lorises, Mouse Lemurs etc
Did you ever experience the nocturnal hall before the aye-ayes? It was exactly as you state, only there were owl monkeys rather than pottos, along with bush babies, loris, and mouse lemurs.
I didn't know that. I do remember they had Aye-Ayes in the late 90s through 2002/2003 along with a mouse lemur or two. Then they got a new pair in 2008. The reason the Zoo got rid of them was because they were very expensive to keep because they chew through everything and visits into the exhibit had to be supervised in small groups as to not disrupt breeding and ennsure visitors weren't using the flash on cameras. I think bats might be an interesting replacement if they don't get nocturnal primates.
Does anyone know the names of the two aye-ayes that transferred to Frankfurt in Germany last year or the year before? I know the female is called Tsara but I don't know what the male is called.
