red colobus in zoos?

[condor]

Anyone know if any species of red colobus (genus Procolobus/Piliocolobus) are or have been kept in zoos or similar with any level of success? ISIS doesn't show anything. Are they victims of the same leaf-eating monkey problems as Proboscis Monkey and douc langurs? Some red colobus species very rare and perhaps best not kept in captivity unless in-situ conservation proven to not work, but others like Tshuapa still common and widespread:

Tshuapa Red Colobus Monkey on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Could perhaps also be good practice in case ex-situ conservation needed in future for rarer species like Zanzibar:

Red Colobus Monkey on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Bele]

Red colobus

Hello Condor

Many years ago - probably back in the 1970's - Banham Zoo kept one for I think several years . I seem to remember they got a mate for it though I don't think that lasted long . Somewhere I have a picture .

 

[Pertinax]

Hello Condor

Many years ago - probably back in the 1970's - Banham Zoo kept one for I think several years . I seem to remember they got a mate for it though I don't think that lasted long . Somewhere I have a picture .

Banham Zoo(and Suffolk WP) have had a number of other unusual primates in the past- including Silver Leaf Monkeys, De Brazza's and Hamlyn Owl- faced Guenons(the latter breeding) but each group has eventually faded away. Now it seems they no longer have Muller's Gibbons either.

 

[taun]

Banham Zoo(and Suffolk WP) have had a number of other unusual primates in the past- including Silver Leaf Monkeys, De Brazza's and Hamlyn Owl- faced Guenons(the latter breeding) but each group has eventually faded away. Now it seems they no longer have Muller's Gibbons either.

I have been looking at their website and reading up on Banham Zoo, they do seem to have lost alot of their unusually species.

 

[Sun Wukong]

This would actually be a great question for the already existing "Which zoo(s) keep(s)..."

I will thus post my answer there...

 

[tetrapod]

Anyone know if any species of red colobus (genus Procolobus/Piliocolobus) are or have been kept in zoos or similar with any level of success? ISIS doesn't show anything. Are they victims of the same leaf-eating monkey problems as Proboscis Monkey and douc langurs?

Funnily enough you can see proboscis and Doucs in a number of zoos, but I don't believe that there are any reds in captivity due to the complications of diet. Durrell (Jersey) mentions in one of his books about bringing black & whites and reds back from an African collecting trip. Unfortunately he was unable to keep the reds alive.

 

[Bele]

The Durrell book was 'Catch me a Colobus' . I quote from it ' Eventually , it came to the point where the red-and-blacks were so sullen and withdrawn , and eating so little , that it was obvious it would have taken months of patient work to adapt them to captivity and to an unnatural diet . To my intense disappointment I decided that we would have to let them go , and this we did .'

 

[foz]

i would really like to see a large group of red colobus in a zoo somewhere and i'm sure a large zoo could pull it off

 

[tetrapod]

i would really like to see a large group of red colobus in a zoo somewhere and i'm sure a large zoo could pull it off

Don't hold your breath. With Eastern and King colobus easily maintained in collections worldwide, it is unlikely that a 'difficult' species like reds will be imported soon.

 

[bongorob]

Hello Condor

Many years ago - probably back in the 1970's - Banham Zoo kept one for I think several years . I seem to remember they got a mate for it though I don't think that lasted long . Somewhere I have a picture .

They went to Cologne.

 

[Joker1706]

Weren´t there some red colobus monkeys long time ago in both great african import zoos (Frankfurt in it´s Grzimek time and Antwerp, because of the colonies ?)

 

[Cat-Man]

^i'm sure that some other british zoo's and antwerp zoo's must have kept them in the past due to, as stated by joker1706, due to colonial relations. What happened to Colognes red colobus?

 

[condor]

Frankfurt in it´s Grzimek time

Sun Wukongs answer in another thread is about the Frankfurt red colobus: https://www.zoochat.com/community/posts/64111

^i'm sure that some other british zoo's and antwerp zoo's must have kept them in the past due to, as stated by joker1706, due to colonial relations.

In my initial question I noted 'with any level of success'. I know this is a loose term but at very least I would say it requires that the animal has a year in reasonable health in captivity. With the highly specialised red colobus diet I doubt any that may have reached Europe before 1940 survived more than a few months, at most. I believe the few places that have tried in the last 50 years have already been mentioned but if any are missing I hope people will add a comment.

Funnily enough you can see proboscis and Doucs in a number of zoos, but I don't believe that there are any reds in captivity due to the complications of diet.

Yes, proboscis monkey and douc langurs are now kept with high success (regularly breeding) in a few Asian zoos but it was only through the work in recent years that the code in keeping them was truly cracked. That only a single proboscis monkey and a handful of doucs remain in western zoos reveal the very limited earlier success. Red colobus are no more specialised than doucs and I guess that if a group was brought into captivity today, at least to a tropical zoo with experiance in folivore monkeys like Singapore, it would be a success.

 

[tetrapod]

Red colobus are no more specialised than doucs and I guess that if a group was brought into captivity today, at least to a tropical zoo with experiance in folivore monkeys like Singapore, it would be a success.

We don't know for certain that this is the case. A number of folivorous primate species have been kept successfully in captivity for many decades - b&w colobus, various langurs, leaf monkeys and b&w howlers - but it is obvious that some species have shown to be either more specialised in diet or of a nervous disposition when it comes to captivity. As I mentioned previously I would be surprised if a collection put alot of effort into keeping a potentially difficult species such as red colobus, certainly when to 'joe public' we are talking about another monkey.

 

[condor]

We don't know for certain that this is the case.

If you are talking about potential success in captivity, then you are entirely right: We don't know. That is why I said I guess in my last comment. If you are talking about diet, then we certainly do know. There have been numerous studies into the diet of red colobus monkeys. A sample (there are many more, including a study of olive colobus diet by Oates 1988):

-Chapman, CA, and Chapman, LJ. 1999. Implications of small scale variation in ecological conditions for the diet and density of red colobus monkeys. Primates 40(1): 215-231
-Davies, AG., Oates, JF., and Dasilva, GL. 1999. Patterns of frugivory in three West African colobine monkeys. Int. J. Primatol. 20: 327–357.
-Decker, BS. 1994. Effects of habitat disturbance on the behavioral ecology and demographics of the Tana River red colobus (Colobus badius rufomitratus). Int. J. Primatol. 15(5): 703-737.
-Marsh, CW. 1981. Diet choice among red colobus (Colobus badius rufomitratus) on the Tana River, Kenya. Folia Primatos 35: 147-178.
-Nowak, K. 2007. Behavioral flexibility and demography of Procolobus kirkii across floristic and disturbance gradients. PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge.
-Struhsaker, TT, and Oates, JF. 1975. Comparison of the behavior and ecology of red colobus and black-and-white colobus monkeys in Uganda: a summary. In: Tuttle, RH. Socioecology and Psychology of Primates. 103-124.
-Wachter, B., Schabel, M., and Noe, R. 1997. Diet overlap and polyspecific associations of red colobus and diana monkeys in the Tai National Park, Ivory Coast. Ethology 103: 514–526.

From a zoo perspective the perhaps most interesting things that have been revealed by the studies is that although all are primarily folivores, none of the populations that have been studied appear to be strict folivores. Some populations of some species (e.g., P. badius) even feed on fruits, flowers and leaves in roughly equal proportions. Among the more strictly folivore populations there tend to be favorite food plants but they aren't that picky. An example is P. tephrosceles that has been recorded feeding on 60+ species. For comparison 50+ in red-shanked douc and 55+ in proboscis monkey. Should it be necessary to ever bring P. kirkii into captivity for conservation purpose one of its favorite foods is Terminalia catappa. A species that is commonly keept in horticulture in tropical regions around the world.

 

[Jurek7]

Zanzibar red colobus P.kirki now eat very strange leaves. The natural forest on Zanzibar was practically destroyed, and monkeys live on plantations and edges of mangroves, eating leaves from almost any tree available. And somehow survive and breed on it.

I think the problem is sourcing animals (it was discussed already).

 

[condor]

Most native forest and woodland has disappeared but some remain and a large percentage of the remaining Zanzibar red colobus live there. Mangrove is one of its natural habitats and presently available studies suggests birth rates in this habitat are similar to those in ground-water forest. They are virtually absent from pure agricultural habitats away from native habitats. Only frequent in agricultural habitats next to native habitats. The few introduced tree species some populations regularly feed on do not appear to cause problems for them. I'm not sure why they should since their habit of eating coal to potentially remove toxins from plants reveals an unusually high level of dietary plasticity compared to most other mainly folivorous colobines. Only a big problem in extreme specialists and no evidence that the Zanzibar red colobus is. The main specialisation is that they avoid mature fruits and need large quantities (about half their intake) of young leaves and leaf buds. The exact species isn't that important. Except for human persecution, the main problem for groups that live in agricultural habitats seems to be overbrowsing. There's just not enough year-round food in the habitat. More on Zanzibar red colobus diet and habitat use

-Nowak, K. 2007 (my last post has full)
-Nowak, K. and Lee, P. 2011. Demographic structure of Zanzibar red colobus populations in unprotected coral rag and mangrove forests. International Journal of Primatology 32(1): 24-45.
-Siex, KS. 2003. Effects of population compression on the demography, ecology, and behavior of the Zanzibar red colobus monkey (Procolobus kirkii). PhD Dissertation, Duke University.
-Siex, KS. and Struhsaker, TT. 1999. Ecology of the Zanzibar red colobus monkey: demography variability and habitat stability. International Journal of Primatology 20(2): 163-192.

 

[ungulate nerd]

There have been 3 subspecies of Red colobus in european zoos and the species that have been held in european zoos are
Sierra Leone red colobus (Piliocolobus badius badius), Temmincks red colobus (Piliocolobus badius temminckii), and Zanzibar colobus and
Zanzibar red colobus (Piliocolobus kirkii) and the zoos in europe that had Zanzibar red colobus were Frankfurt Zoo and Antwerp Zoo, the zoo in europe that had Temmincks red colobus wes London Zoo, and the zoos that had Sierra Leone red colobus were Banham Zoo and Cologne Zoo, I dont know if there have been any Red colobus in the United States but does anybody else know ???

 

[vogelcommando]

The Zanzibar Red colobusses kept at Frankfurt ( late 1960-ties ? ) came from a failed translocation. By cutting a wood on Zanzibar a small group which lived there was catched and it was tried to place them in a reserve in mainland Kenya. This wasn't a succes and the 2 remaining males then were send to Frankfurt Zoo. Because they wanted to set-up a breeding-group some new females were brought in from Zanzibar but again without succes. 2 years was the maximum period they could keep them alive.

 

[ungulate nerd]

I found out that 3 zoos in the United States had Red colobus. those zoos were Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, San Diego Zoo, and Bronx Zoo, but the specimens that lived at those zoos did not live long. No facility has kept Red colobus in 5 years