Butterfly Creek Cottontop tamarins

[Chlidonias]

Auckland Zoo Animals Moved To New Homes After Death... | Stuff.co.nz

20 Feb 2013

All 430 of Franklin Zoo's animals have found new homes - apart from Mila the elephant, as keepers agonise over which of three facilities in the US to send the elephant to.

Franklin Zoo closed its doors last year after owner Helen Schofield was crushed to death by former circus elephant, Mila.

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Among animals that have found new homes are four cotton-top tamarins that have been rehomed at Butterfly Creek, near Auckland Airport.

The tamarins - Ay, Chaka, Merida and Miracle - were all moved last week.

The cotton-top tamarins were sent to the sanctuary because they were not part of a breeding programme, Chung said.

The decision to exclude the four from the gene pool was made by the Zoo and Aquarium Association, which co-ordinates zoo breeding programmes across Australasia.

The tiny monkeys are critically endangered and it's estimated there are only 6,000 of them in the wild, all in the Central American country of Colombia.

They weigh, on average, just 430 grams and live to about 22 years old in captivity.

Butterfly Creek animal manager Amy Keller said the pint-sized primates have very distinct personalities.

''Chaska is a very friendly little critter - she's the dominant one. Miracle is a lot more cheeky and mischievous.
''Merida loves her food and Ay is just a calm, relaxed dude.''

The four are living in two separate enclosures in Butterfly Creek's tropical butterfly house, where they're fed a diet of fruit and insects.

''Because they're such small animals they do need a lot of energy so they need food constantly,'' Keller said.

 

[zooboy28]

There is a photo of one of the tamarin enclosures on Butterfly Creek's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.p...84900261.39499.131236476965242&type=1&theater

The tamarins were kept as two seperate groups at Franklin, so I guess its not surprising that they are being kept seperately at Butterfly Creek too. I hope their enclosures aren't too small, the photo looks like a bit of a dark hut, with little natural light or vegetation, and not a large amount of space. Its probably bigger than Hamilton's exhibit though, and maybe even Wellington's now, especially if you factor in number of individuals.