Fran from WCS sent me some great images and a very complete summary that describes and shows the new Madagascar Exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.  Rather than condensing all of this information down to post in our news area, I decided to post it in its entirety on my blog.

I have included both the fact sheet and photos which combined provide a very insightful premiere of what visitors will see when they visit this exciting new exhibit.

Madagascar!

BRONX ZOO EXHIBIT FACT SHEET

HABITAT:

Madagascar! will represent a dazzling reproduction of intriguing habitats on the world’s fourth largest island, located off Africa’s east coast and will highlight the extraordinary array of Madagascar’s wildlife and the many threats and challenges to species conservation.  The exhibit will delight guests with a display of colorful and exotic creatures from this “eighth continent” and inspire a conservation ethic by illustrating the threats to the island’s biodiversity and the urgent need for WCS and others to protect its wildlife and wild lands.

EXHIBITS:

Only In Madagascar

This introductory exhibit to Madagascar! will orient guests, through graphics and video, to the island’s geography and distinctive assemblage of wildlife, the vast majority of which exist nowhere else.

Animals Exhibited: pinstripe damba

Conservation Trail

This path through the exhibit’s rich interpretive experiences will interweave varied learning opportunities for guests to engage, both emotionally and intellectually, in the wonders of Madagascar and WCS’s conservation activities.

Tsingy Cliffs

This dramatic entrance gallery features spectacular limestone cliff formations extending a full two stories high, a striking habitat for Coquerel’s sifaka, a critically endangered species of lemur that inhabits the northwest forests of Madagascar. Sifakas have a unique mode of locomotion-- called vertical clinging and leaping—where they use their powerful hind limbs to leap from tree to tree.

Animals Exhibited:  Coquerel's sifaka

Tsingy Caves

Drawing guests deeper into the exotic world of Madagascar, the Tsingy Caves will introduce one of the island’s most dramatic habitats: an underground limestone cave created by the eroding effect of rivers and seeps over thousands of years.  As guests navigate the dim passageway, they will come face-to-face with a giant Nile crocodile.

Animals Exhibited:  Malagasy killifish and Malagasy tree boa

Crocodile Pool

Placed at eye level, a 15,000-gallon tank in the Tsingy Caves will bring guests face-to-face with a 13-foot-long giant Nile crocodile lying in wait for its prey in the darkness of the cave.

Small Wonders, Big Threats

This gallery introduces, at child’s eye level, an array of living gems: tomato frogs, leaf-tailed geckos, rainbow fish and other fascinating creatures that introduce the diversity of Madagascar’s wildlife.  The exhibits will be set into a high-tech surround "theater-in-the-round" with dramatic video portraying the island’s animals in their native environments contrasted with scenes of habitat destruction and the threats to Madagascan wildlife.

Animals Exhibited:  lesser hedgehog tenrec, Malagasy killifish, white fin rainbowfish, tomato frogs, Madagascar giant day gecko, golden mantella, painted mantella, blue-leg mantella, leaf tailed gecko, giant orb-weaving spider

Spiny Forest

In this gallery, the centerpiece of the exhibit, guests will enter a bizarre arid forest of spiny trees found in Madagascar’s dry south.  There they will encounter a diverse range of animals, including a dozen charismatic ring-tailed lemurs, a pair of brown lemurs, radiated tortoises, and two bird species: the Madagascar red fody and greyheaded lovebird.

Animals Exhibited: ring-tailed lemur, brown lemur, gray-headed lovebird, Madagascar red fody, radiated tortoise. 

Baobab Tree

Within the Spiny Forest gallery, guests will step into a “cockroach tree,” a fabrication of the oddly shaped baobab tree, where they will view a glass-enclosed collection of Madagascan hissing cockroaches.

Animals Exhibited: hissing cockroaches

Discovery Zone

At the central point of the Conservation Trail, this child-focused interactive area will provide an opportunity for hands-on exploration through educational activities designed to spark curiosity and foster learning in Madagascar!

Observation Station and Tortoise Nursery

This interactive display brings guests inside a “WCS field hut” in the Spiny Forest for a close look at the science behind conservation.  Here they will learn how scientists use observation of lemur behavior as part of conservation efforts in the wild.  Guests also will see a “nursery” where juvenile radiated tortoises are raised and protected.

Animals Exhibited: ring-tailed lemur, radiated tortoise, four-lined plated lizard, spiny-tailed iguana, spider tortoise (aka pixie tortoise)

Masoala

A dramatic final gallery, here guests will experience a re-creation of the Masoala National Park, critically important to many of Madagascar’s species and a site of WCS’s field conservation efforts for more than a decade.  A habitat formed around a cascading waterfall will be home to a small group of vociferous red-ruffed lemurs, and a separate habitat will host a pair of fossa, a unique mammalian predator found only on Madagascar.

Animals Exhibited: red ruffed lemur, fossa

Images (*unless noted) – Credit: Julie Larsen Maher © WCS.

Image # 2 and # 10 – Credit: Suzanne Bolduc © WCS.

All images are the property of the Wildlife Conservation Society (“WCS”) and are protected under United States andinternational copyright laws.The photographs and their file names may not be copied, transmitted, stored, reproduced,displayed, altered or otherwise used in any way without the prior written permission of WCS.

Requests for permission should be directed to Linda Corcoran 718-220-5182 or by email at lcorcoran@wcs.org

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