steveroberts

Taronga Zoo Map 1920

It is interesting that they did not have a giraffe or koala exhibit yet.

Does anybody know what "dolly monkeys" (21) and "black apes" (29) were? Squirrel monkeys and siamangs?
 
@DavidBrown the first Giraffe wasn't imported until 1926 but they would have had Koalas - although not labelled for some reason (maybe they were in the "small mammal enclosures" or something like that). The photo below is from c.1920 at Taronga.

Three koalas in a tree house, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, ca. 1920 [picture].

I have never heard the name "Dolly Monkey" before - I'll see if I can find it anywhere - but "black ape" was generally used for Sulawesi Crested Macaques.
 
Black Apes were probably Macaca nigra, still known by some as Celebesian Black Apes. But Dolly monkey is a new one on me.

And I believe the first Giraffes arrived in 1920, so around the time this map was printed. The enclosure giraffes have been in since as long as I can remember is # 23 on the map, for springbok and gazelle, so they could have gone in there.

As for koalas, they might possibly have been in the "Small Mammal enclosures" (#9) but I suspect they were a 'difficult' species to keep back in those days so the zoos might not have kept them.
 
I tried searching out why the langur would be called a "Dolly Monkey" but didn't get far. The word dolly was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s to mean attractive (hence the term "doll" later, to refer to a woman) or silly, so it could be connected to that. It's a strange name, though, so my theory is that it might be a corruption from the Sinhalese name for the monkey, kalu wadura.
 

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