Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts Wild Animal Park News 2015

Jakub

Jakub

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hello folks,

At the beginning of July I plane to visit Howletts for th first time ( and also Great Britain ) and would like to ask some questions. I am especially interested in primates and would like to know if the following species are still in the collection and visible for public - Mitred Leaf Monkey, Grizzled Leaf Monkey, Heck's Macaque and Lesser Spot-Nosed Guenon.
I have never seen these species before...And if the weather is bad is it possible to have a look into their indoor facilities ? And my another question relates accessibility of the park. I will be using public transport from London direct to Bekesbourne. Is there a regular bus connection from the station to the park ? Is the park reachable within 20 minutes walking ? And my last question - I would like to visit RSCC in the same day, would you recommend me to go there by train or make a bus journey ?
I would very appreciate any response.
Jakub
 
There is a bus between the station and park during the summer but probably not at the beginning of July. You could e-mail/call them and ask though.

The easiest way to get there (in my opinion) would be to get the train to Canterbury and then catch a bus to Littlebourne. From there it's ~5 mins walk, if that.

EDIT: I think the 13/14 from Littlebourne (the same bus you'd get from Canterbury) also goes very close to RSCC (1-2 min walk)
 
I last went last August and the Heck's Macaques were offshow, but could be seen from a distance of 50 plus yards in a cage near the mansion, if you looked across with your back to the snow leopard cage.
Don't remember seeing the spot nosed Guenons last time, but both leaf monkeys were on show along the same path as snow leopards.
There is no indoor viewing for these cages, in fact none for most of the enclosures at Howletts!
 
There aren't guenons but there are De Brazza's Monkeys which I've not seen elsewhere.

There are now white-naped mangabeys plus there are still there grizzled and banded leaf monkeys/langurs. I don't think there are mitred leaf monkeys but there are Francois langurs.

It's about a 25 minute walk to the zoo entrance from Bekesbourne station. I'm not sure how you'd get to the Rare Species Centre from there, sorry. It's in the countryside so public transport is minimal.
 
Lemurs said:
There aren't guenons but there are De Brazza's Monkeys which I've not seen elsewhere.

There are now white-naped mangabeys plus there are still there grizzled and banded leaf monkeys/langurs. I don't think there are mitred leaf monkeys but there are Francois langurs.
Click to expand...

De Brazza's *are* a species of guenon.

Also, Howletts has never held the banded leaf monkey (Presbytis femoralis) - last I was aware it held Javan Leaf Monkey (Presbytis comata) and Mitred Leaf Monkey (Presbytis melalophos) out of this genus. I am assuming you are confusing the comata with femoralis.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
De Brazza's *are* a species of guenon.

Also, Howletts has never held the banded leaf monkey (Presbytis femoralis) - last I was aware it held Javan Leaf Monkey (Presbytis comata) and Mitred Leaf Monkey (Presbytis melalophos) out of this genus. I am assuming you are confusing the comata with femoralis.
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Howletts certainly used to label their Presbytis melalophus ('nobilis') as Banded Leaf Monkey - see attached, apologies for cone! - not sure if they still do, from memory, but Lemurs isn't confused on this - that's the name they use in the zoo.
 

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Last time I was there in August 2014, they were labelled grizzled leaf monkey & banded leaf monkey. I remember from past visits though that there was definitely a label for mitred leaf monkey, but there were no such labels this time. It would appear that these are now labelled banded as stated above.
 
AFAIK, the spot-nosed monkeys, if either are even still alive (they were very old), are housed in an offshow cage at the back of the newer gorilla complex.

As for the langurs, it was stated on this forum that the only remaining pure 'Mitred' langur had gone to the Isle of Wight Owl and Monkey Haven in around 2009/10, along with several generic 'banded' and Javan leaf monkeys, also from Howletts:

http://www.zoochat.com/38/owl-monkey-haven-115704/#post254207
Owl and Monkey Haven, Isle of Wight | Jason Swain Photography

Prior to the changes their taxonomic status, when the original group arrived around 1990 from Indonesia, they were described as being mainly of the nominate race Presbytis melalophos melalphos, but were described as banded leaf monkeys, with some animals also clearly labelled as 'Mitred' langurs. These pure Mitreds were held for a while in a circular enclosure by the old African leopard cage at the back of the mansion.

It would seem that banded langurs P. femoralis were previously classed as a subspecies of this group of langurs, yet Howletts referred to their nominate Presbytis melalophos melalphos as banded langurs, with the Mitreds considered another subspecies of the 'banded leaf monkey'. I guess since actual banded langurs - P. femoralis, which were previously considered a subspecies of this group but which is now classed as a species in its own right - it would be more appropriate for Howletts to refer to its remaining animals as Mitred langurs (as it does on the website), or Sumatran Surili. I don't believe Howletts has ever held any P. femoralis, the subspecies that became the species now know as banded langurs. The IUCN red list is a good resource for understanding the classification of these langurs.

In terms of why Howletts allowed 'hybrids to be produced', the subspecies' range overlaps in the wild and there are natural hybrid zones in these areas. Due to losses, the newsletter stated that at one point Howletts effectively gave up trying to manage separate subspecies due to the lack viable pure individuals remaining in the pure nominate and Mitred groups. So I would expect the majority of the group then became labelled as generic 'banded' langurs.

They recieved a second import at the end of the 90s(?) following the forest fires, and I'm sure the remaining animals are the remaining individuals from this group, plus any born at the park. I'm assuming the later group were pure animals of the nominate subspecies, otherwise the relocation of a pure Mitred and three 'hybrid' animals to the Isle of Wight makes no sense (I don't think it made sense anyway, but whatever). These four animals no longer appear on the haven's website so unless they're off-exhibit or were sent somewhere else (unlikely), I think it likely they have all died at this facility.
 
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Communityzoo said:
They recieved a second import at the end of the 90s(?) following the forest fires, and I'm sure the remaining animals are the remaining individuals from this group, plus any born at the park. I'm assuming the later group were pure animals of the nominate subspecies, otherwise the relocation of a pure Mitred and three 'hybrid' animals to the Isle of Wight makes no sense (I don't think it made sense anyway, but whatever). These four animals no longer appear on the haven's website so unless they're off-exhibit or were sent somewhere else (unlikely), I think it likely they have all died at this facility.
Click to expand...

The various surili on the Isle of Wight died by late 2011 I believe.

The remaining Mitred Surili at Howletts consist of the remnants of a hybrid swarm I believe, as the population was slightly more complex than you indicate - having contained individuals identified as Presbytis melalophos melalophos, Presbytis melalophos nobilis, Presbytis melalophos mitrata
and Presbytis melalophos fluviatilis as well as hybrids of these - though the IUCN now lumps these into merely the two taxa, nominate and mitrata, I believe that Howletts tried to maintain the four lines for as long as possible. As far as I know, the term "mitred" is valid for both subspecies - nominate being Yellow-handed Mitred and mitrata being Depigmented or Southern Mitred.
 
I hope the ones sent to the IOW were very elderly animals, otherwise losing four animals within two years of arriving isn't great, really. Why Howletts couldn't maintain them adjacent to the ones it kept, I don't know. Its not as if they don't keep many separate groups of other primate species.

I remember the nobilis now, but wasn't aware they'd had a fourth subspecies. Did all four arrive with the first group, or was it split between the first and second imports? In terms of identification, I only ever saw the Mitreds distinguished from the others in terms of enclosure signs.

The IUCN link below lists four subspecies, although perhaps you have more recent information:
Presbytis melalophos (Mitred Leaf Monkey, Sumatran Surili)
 
Communityzoo said:
Did all four arrive with the first group, or was it split between the first and second imports? .......
The IUCN link below lists four subspecies, although perhaps you have more recent information:
Presbytis melalophos (Mitred Leaf Monkey, Sumatran Surili)
Click to expand...

I think all four came in with the first group.

As far as I know, the IUCN summary is accurate at the present time; however if the four remaining subspecies are split into full species (as has been suggested a few times, I believe) there is a chance that the subsumed nobilis and fluviatilis will be recognised at subspecies level once again, as I know they *do* look distinct from melalophos and mitrata respectively.
 
the name surili is already badly chosen. It refers to the P. comata from Java. I think that Brandon-Jones introduced this name for many of the Presbytis species. The melalophos species group (or its different subspecies, but I prefer the Phylogenetic Species Concept) has several local names, but in the largest part of Sumatra they are called simpai.
Howletts had nobilis, melalophos and fluviatilis, now all grouped as colour variants under the name Presbytis melalophos. However, very little research has been done on the taxonomy of the genus, and I personally would split them as they are clearly defined geographical variants.
Presbytis melalophos was never considered to be a subspecies of femoralis, but they are closely related. Therefore they were all called banded langurs, but in other languages they are all mitred langurs. They had one more variant, and orange animal with black arms, but that was never on show (I think that it died soon after arrival). It could have been a hybrid between melalophos and sumatranus, also observed on Sumatra. The fact that IUCN lumps the species is because of a lack of information on the taxonomy and distribution of the species. Research has become difficult due to the high deforestation rates, some species might already have gone extinct.
 
Baby Javan Gibbon

Howletts have just announced on their Facebook page about a birth of Javan Gibbon just in time for February Half Term
 
The White Naped Mangabey's (mentioned earlier in the thread) are confirmed as 1.2 - with one being from Rotterdam, another from Jardin de Plantes and the 3rd from Dublin
 
Golden-Bellied Mangabey query

There are photos on their facebook of the Golden-Bellied Mangabey pair at Port Lympne with some enrichment- the male is referred to as 'Edward'. Is this a new male, perhaps to replace the old geriatric one if he has died, does anyone know?
 
I've been told the baby gibbon is a boy and is at the enclosure by the lion-tailed macaques and javan langurs. The baby wasn't on show on Saturday.
 
Another gelada was born last weekend, sex unknown. The one that's a few months old has a little independence now, he goes for a wander before mum decides he's gone far enough and yanks him back by his tail.

The black lemurs have left the wall near the old gorillas and are off show. They may be put back into the walk-through but it depends how they integrate with the other species. They're a lot more erm, assertive than crowneds, red bellies and even B&W ruffeds.

Also, and feel free to ignore this, next week I'm running a half-marathon for their Madagascar project: https://www.justgiving.com/eyeofthelemur/
 
Very commendable and it raises awareness amongst people..but I would be much more convinced if Aspers jnr was matching the money ten-fold(at least)...aye,sit in opulent luxury and let others sweat it out whilst you wait for the caviar to chill - that's the ticket!
 
Cheers. I actually hate running but for £520 it was worth it. Some news...

A Javan gibbon has arrived from Perth but is off show.

Black lemurs are very cool and amusing but a bit too assertive. Therefore the walkthrough currently has black lemurs out in the morning, then the crowned, red bellied and ruffed lemurs in the afternoon.

Both gelada babies are now playful and enjoy a little wandering from mum. If you visit Howletts then keep an eye out for 'Lee' who often invades the colobus enclosure. He's the most misbehaved primate in the park and has some very funny hyperactive moments.

... And best of all, some grizzled langurs were also released in Java. There's also now a rescue centre which will take in and rehabilitate victims of the pet trade.
 
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