Southern muriqui - Sorocaba zoo (PZMQB)

Do you happen to know why there are no Muriqui in the western Zoos? Do they have dietary restrictions etc. or is it just a species that was never established outside of Brazil and South America?

@Nix Well, afaik, their diet has nothing very different of fruits and leaves. I would tend to think the motive would be that there was never a population established outside the country... Just like the marsh deer, probably. Yeah, the deer was kept by some institutions, and later phased out, but the motive is similar IMO: Despite being wonderful species, they are not a huge highlight when it comes to visitors impressions. No vibrant colors, no huge size, and you can get very similar species in a much easier way (in the case of the muriqui, we have the wooly mokeys, and in the case of the marsh deer, we have brockets, or maybe even other common species of deer that would "substitute" them). It's just a hypothesis, but it could be... Anyway, it would be nice to count on the effort of more institutions in the conservation of these species. Hope this fact changes in the future.

@Nix I thought disease was a problem hampering muruqui husbandry

@PossumRoach
Maybe... I have never read anything about it, but it might be one of the reasons indeed; although I don't think any muriqui has ever lived in any zoo outside the country to know about.

@David Matos Mendes Zootierliste says that Artis had Muriquis in 1862

@Nix - Artis is listed for Northern Muriqui; for Southern Muriqui there are listed Berlin, Dresden, Halle, Leipzig, and Ouwehands.

There is also an record for the USA of 38 animals imported in 1969 although this is almost certainly an identification error. See this thread: Mammals Imported into the United States, 1968-1972

See also this thread, where an animal imported to the Bronx Zoo is mentioned: Muriqui in the USA

I had no idea this species had ever been kept outside of the country. Anyway, as far as I know, they never bred in these conditions.

@Nix Well that's quite interesting! Although 1862 is quite a distant date to consider this information accurate, indeed

@David Matos Mendes - Artis was 1862, and (assuming the ZTL dates are correct) Berlin was 1889, Dresden 1863, Halle 1905 and the 1950s, Leipzig 1937, and Ouwehands from 1971 to 1977. The Bronx Zoo was in 1959.

I suspect the reason that the species have very rarely been kept in foreign zoos has little to do with diet or anything else of that nature, but is simply an artifact of wildlife trade routes.

@Chlidonias
Well, really nice info. There is a high chance they are accurate, IMO, because muriquis didn't use to be that rare in the past, so it would be pretty possible that they were indeed imported to the reffered zoos.
Regarding the reason of them not being kept anywhere else outside Brazil, I agree that your hypothesis must be one of the motives indeed, and I would add the present lack of captive individuals as another cause. We barely have southern muriquis to spread through our zoos, and the last captive northern one died a few years ago, unfortunately...