gibbons in the UK

johnstoni

Well-Known Member
I just read that the Isle of Wight zoo are looking after two Vietnamese 'white-faced' gibbons for paradise wildlife park. They look like crested gibbons, so I'm assuming they would be Hylobates leucongenys, the white-cheeked, the same as the one at London and the group at Twycross.

This species is often referred to as the 'concolor' gibbon, (or northern concolor) which I find confusing as actual Hylobates concolor are rare in captivity. 'Concolor' gibbons used to be housed at combe martin from what I can tell, these have long gone, and I would guess them to have been white-cheeked rather than H. concolor. Does anybody know which species of gibbon were held at Penscynor. Certainly they may have had at least pileated or agile gibbons into the early 1980s.

So IOW zoo, Rare Species conservation centre, London and Twycross appear to have this species right now in the UK. Unless the two males destined for Paradise Wildlife Park are the two males from Kent, which would mean the Rare Species Conservation Centre may already have had its pileated gibbons arrive. Does anyone know if the London animal will stay with the hybrid mate?

Monkey world, twycross and Howletts/Port Lympne appear to be the main gibbon breeding/holding centres in the UK right now. It's amazing that monkeyworld hold ten of the 14 buff-cheeked and 4 of the 6 muellers (unless ISIS are incorrect with regard to the other institutions holding these 2 species).

I always though paignton had a very large collection of gibbons, I suppose they must have dwindled over the years. Similarly, I am pretty sure Banham used to have at least mueller's or another unusual gibbon species until recently, does anyone know what happened to them? I'm guessing there are no more Kloss's at Twycross.

The more familiar siamang appears to be doing well in UK zoos right now, as does the lar. But I wonder what the recommendations are for lar gibbons, as there is a great deal of speculation around the possible subspecies, yet the majority of captive stock appear to be generic.
 
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I always though paignton had a very large collection of gibbons, I suppose they must have dwindled over the years. Similarly, I am pretty sure Banham used to have at least mueller's or another unusual gibbon species until recently, does anyone know what happened to them? I'm guessing there are no more Kloss's at Twycross.

The more familiar siamang appears to be doing well in UK zoos right now, as does the lar.

I don't ever remember many gibbons at Paignton- only a family group of Lars on the Lake island. and perhaps the odd Pileated in the old Monkey House.

Banham definately had a family group of Muellers(4 animals). They built two large new gibbon enclosures in the centre of the zoo- Siamangs on one side, Muellers on the other. I haven't been for several years now.

Siamangs- well represented in the Uk-from memory- Marwell, MonkeyWorld, Banham, Twycross, Howletts/PL, must be several others too- including the Isle of Wight primate sanctuary which has them too.
 
Certainly Paignton used to hold agile, moloch, muellers and pileated alongside the lar gibbons, but their gibbon collection dwindled during the 1990s. Many were kept on islands, but there were some held in cages near the old monkey house at several stages.

I was sure Banham had muellers gibbons, that's interesting, I wonder if they died out? I'm assuming the zoo would not have chosen to stop keeping them. Like twycross, Banham seems to be losing many primate species which it can't replace.

Noahs Ark, South Lakes, thrigby, also have Siamang. ISIS only list Howletts and Port Lympne as having two siamangs between them, I wonder how true this is.
 
I was sure Banham had muellers gibbons, that's interesting, I wonder if they died out? I'm assuming the zoo would not have chosen to stop keeping them. Like twycross, Banham seems to be losing many primate species which it can't replace.

The Mueller's at Banham were a breeding pair + two offspring. They also had a nice breeding pair of Hamlyn's guenons with two young also but these dwindled/disappeared, as it seems have the De Brazza's(4) at Kessingland/AA and the 'L'hoests.

I saw Siamang at Port Lympne two years ago but not sure if it was one/two or more. They used to keep them at Howletts too- in some of the old cages in the woodland walk area running behind the mansion, but those cages all seemed semiderelict and many of them were empty on my recent visits.
 
Banham had 2 muellers on the EAZA surplus list a wee while bck! i presume they moved on!
 
I guess that would be the last 2 sub-adult offspring from the pair that made a total of 4 animals, but it doesn't explain what happened to the breeding pair.....
 
Bristol now have a pair of agile gibbons on one of the islands on the lake from Fota and Twycross.
 
I guess that would be the last 2 sub-adult offspring from the pair that made a total of 4 animals, but it doesn't explain what happened to the breeding pair.....

My thought too. Unless they lost an adult and a youngster and this was all that was left and so they have disbanded them... As already noted, they have already lost two or three other primate species which won't return...
 
This photograph would suggest that Combe Martin kept White-cheeked gibbons as late as 2004, or maybe still has them. I am guessing they would have just had the one pair, since the late 80's, whether or not they bred I don't know.It may well be that they have since died and now lar gibbons fill the enclosure, unless they have been keeping lars in another enclosure, as photos of Lar gibbons are now used in their publicity. Has anyone been to this collection recently?

Coombe Martin Zoo on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 
Just to let people know, the "german zoo-animal list" also lists "Hylobates Muelleri" at "Tierpark Hamm" and "Tierpark Cottbus" but i know nothing about numbers or where they came from...

The site of Tierpark Hamm says "Borneo gibbon 1.1". Would guess it to be a breeding pair then...

The site of Tierpark Cottbus has a picture with 3 animals on it, which seems to be a pair with a youngster.
 
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