First Prosimian Husbandry Workshop 2009 - Cleveland Metroparks ...

• (Briana Evarts): Denver mixed a white-fronted brown with a black howler monkey and they are
good friends.
• Moderator (Monica Mogilewsky): When you do mixed-species for companionship, it can be
easier to just put a single animal with a friend. These tend to be the most successful for
Eulemurs because there is such a strong need for companionship.
• (Tad Schoffner): We have a very old mongoose lemur that they tried to match with geoffrey’s
tamarin for companionship, but it did not work out at all; he attacked the tamarin.
• Moderator (Monica Mogilewsky): It’s important to know the natural history of the animals
you’re putting together. Like putting a lemur with small birds, which they may eat.
Question (Katherine D’Andrea): they have a timid B&W ruffed that is solitary for various reasons. Has
anyone put this species with a non-prosimian?
• (Kris Arnold): they put one with a crested porcupine.
• Moderator (Monica Mogilewsky): Did this benefit the lemur in any way? If it’s just for space,
you can put animals together that will partition the exhibit and avoid each other, but if your
goal is interaction then you have to consider the species in a different way. They use L. catta as
companions all the time. They have one who is the dominant animal in a group of ruffed
lemurs.
Comment (Grace Fuller): We have a slender loris and pygmy loris that affiliate and sleep together.
Comment (Karen Weisenseel): I have had a slender loris fight his way out of a cage to kill a pygmy
loris baby.
Question: Our group of 8 ringtails with collared lemur, collared lemur had a baby and will often
leave baby unattended. There have been observations of ringtails grooming baby, but could there
be aggression towards it?
Comment (Karen Weisenseel): It can happen.
Comment (Laura Suski): It depends on the status of the individuals in the group.
Response: The infant being groomed is a good sign.
Comment (Megan Elder): Has there been luck with mixed-species all female groups?
Comment (Laura Suski): We have 5 lemurs mixed-sex and mixed-species and they all live
together. There has been grooming between the different species. They all have various social
roles.
Moderator (Monica Mogilewsky): There are fewer bachelorette groups, but as long as they are
smaller groups it shouldn’t be a problem.
Comment (Desiree Haneman.): We had a female ruffed lemur and a female ringtailed lemur which
was working, but management changed.
Response: Male ringtails will seduce female ruffeds, but the females are not receptive to this.
Comment (Briana Evarts): A group may break down with seasonality and flexibility is very
important.
Response: We try to have various food bowls.
Comment (Karen Weisenseel): A researcher at Duke said to spread the chow in an arc in an open
area so all lemurs can see it.
Response: We feed up and down for the lemurs.
Comments (Laura Suski): Researchers often need to keep things random and we can’t concentrate
where the food is.
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