Thursday, May 26, 2016

Lion enclosure to be renovated for gibbons: Assiniboine Park Zoo

A special breed of monkey is coming back to the Assiniboine Park Zoo.
The zoo announced Wednesday the lion enclosure will be renovated to house white-handed gibbons, which will come back to the zoo later this year.
“Assiniboine Park Zoo was home to gibbons for many years and they were always a favourite with our visitors,” said Gary Lunsford, Head of Zoological Operations at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. “We’re pleased to have this opportunity to create and maintain a spacious and naturalistic home for this species, and we are very happy to be welcoming them back to our zoo family.”
The renovations will happen in two stages. The first will see the indoor portion of the exhibit renovated throughout the summer and fall for the gibbons to move in over the winter. Then the outdoor portion will be reconstructed to open in spring of 2017, said the zoo.
Once renos are done, a pair of young gibbons will move in. "An endangered species and part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP) program, white-handed gibbons are small, arboreal apes found mainly in tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia," said the zoo.
The zoo's former Asiatic lions, Bhanu and Kamal, were moved to zoological facilities in England as per recommendations from the European Endangered Species program earlier this year.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/2016/05/04/lion-enclosure-renovated-gibbons-assiniboine-park-zoo.html

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