I am re-posting this image because when I told ShonenJake13 that I saw this species at Regent's Park and his face went !
Scanned from a GAF500 slide (which was the fastest colour film available in 1973, I did not use flash).
Incidentally, when I looked at the Arkive website, I not found only 2 photos of angwantibos: both were taken at Regent's Park but one was labelled as Arctocebus aureus and the other as A calabarensis (which I think is correct).
@Goura I have done a little research in some old IZYB volumes and on The Bartlett Society's website. The first angwantibo arrived in 1958, which may well have come from Gerald Durrell's collecting trip. The first successful birth was in 1968, but they died out and/or left in 1978. A few other zoos in Europe kept them at around the same time.
@Goura as a child I lived in Nigeria. My dad was a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the Zoology Dept. He had been given leave to establish a small zoo at the University for use by the students for educational purposes. We started quite a collection of animals in our small home and it included angwantibos. I don’t recall how many we had, I’m waiting for my older brother to confirm that. When we came home on mid-contract leave we brought some angwantibos to donate to London Zoo. It would have been in 1963/4 I think.
By the way my dad was Gordon Barnes, so not a Durrell, but it looks as if we did add to the ZSL collection.
@Arjybargy That's very interesting. The Zoological Society of London Annual Reports for 1963 and 1964 do not list angwantibos as being received in those years but according to the Annual Report for 1965, London Zoo acquired ten angwantibos that year!
@Arjybargy Thank you for the comment. I was using that film as an experiment, and I'm rather surprised that the photo turned out to be recognisable at least. A poor photo is always better than no photo at all @Tim May Wow! I wonder if they passed on some those animals to the Dutch zoos which also held the species.
@Tim May, it could well have been ‘65. My older brother, who has a phenomenal memory, tells me we gave 4 to a Dr Manly at ZSL. We also brought home a Demidorf bushbaby which I presume we also gave to the zoo. I’m wondering if the angwantibos came over at the end of our stay in Nigeria which would tally with 1965. We returned by boat then but I know I had the bushbaby in a child’s handbag on the VC10 flight back to the UK which would have been our mid-contract leave.
