Hamlyn's Owl-faced Monkeys in UK

P

Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
This is a beautiful and interesting species of Forest Guenon, only exhibited in a handful of Zoos worldwide.

The only Zoos in the UK I know of currently where they can be seen are at
Twycross and Edinburgh. Does Bongo or BongoRob know how many there are currently at each ? And are there any elsewhere in the Uk now?

These 3 zoos also exhibited them for a while in the recent past;
London - their last male was sent to Antwerp recently.
Banham- had a breeding trio in late 1990's but not since.
Marwell- had 1/3 -a male from Edinburgh plus three(?) females imported from USA. They weren't there long but does anyone know what happened to them?
 
When I went to Edinburgh in November last year, there were a small group of them in the congo house, with the bongo and the red river hogs. But when I went in April, there were Diana Monkeys in that enclosure instead. I think the Hamln's owl faced monkeys were in the monkey house, but I'm not sure.
 
Edinburgh do well with Guenon monkeys. Their owl-faced used to be about 1/4 animals and they breed regularly too. I didn't know they had been moved from the Monkey House- maybe back there again now? The Diana monkeys there are a similarly successful group. Where is the Congo/Bongo house situated- is it a mixed species exhibit?
 
No. There are Bongo, red river hogs, sengal bushbaby and the monkey species ( not sure whether it is the Diana or the owl faced species). It is situated in the middle of the zoo. None of the species, as far as I know mix together. The exhibit is designed to give that effect.
 
I wouldn't have thought it would be very difficult to organise an exhibit which could include a primate species and one or even two ungulate species living together. The primates are very agile/arboreal so could easily avoid the slower ground living ungulates. Problem is probably one of cost as the ungulates need extensive space while the monkeys would need a covered enclosure... I'm sure these truly mixed exhibits will start to appear at some stage.
 
bongorob said:
Hamlyn's Guenon

ISIS lists 2.1 at Edinburgh and 1.1 at Twycross.
Click to expand...

Hey, what has happened to these groups? They both seem to have suddenly dwindled... I am going to Twycross in a few weeks so perhaps can find out if they have had losses, or what...:confused:
 
I have an Antwerp zoo guide and they list a lot of Congo species that they are specialists with. Okapi, Congo peafowl and the Hamlyn's guenon.

Grantsmb, When You do go to twycross, try to ask about the gibbons and whether they plan to import any more dwarf Simangs ( Kloss's gibbon is another name)
 
Twycross told me they are not getting any more Kloss' gibbon because they are so few in captivity. Like most UK zoos they will not import directly from the wild in case this policy encourages trapping.
 
Hamlyn's Owl Faced Monkey- a male from London, the last of their small group, was recently sent to join Antwerp's. Artis/Amsterdam have(had?) a nice group too.

Kloss's Gibbon- since Twycross's very old male died, I'm not sure there are any elsewhere in captivity at present?
 
There are only 3 Hamlyn`s left in Artis and I havn`t seen any babys in the last years.... not good. Antwerp has 4 females and now 2 males, no breeding neither in the last years. Hopefully the new male from London will change this soon. Breeding must be increased soon or it is too late for this species in western zoos. There are 8 in Leipzig Zoo but only one breeding female, while 3 young females and one young male are seperated from the family group (breeding pair + two male offspring). I can just hope that another zoo will take the young adults soon and build up a new breeding group!
 
Yassa said:
There are only 3 Hamlyn`s left in Artis and I havn`t seen any babys in the last years.... not good. Antwerp has 4 females and now 2 males, no breeding neither in the last years. Hopefully the new male from London will change this soon. Breeding must be increased soon or it is too late for this species in western zoos. There are 8 in Leipzig Zoo but only one breeding female, while 3 young females and one young male are seperated from the family group (breeding pair + two male offspring). I can just hope that another zoo will take the young adults soon and build up a new breeding group!
Click to expand...

If i'm correct Artis holds 3 animals in their monkey-house and a further 1.1 free-ranging in their small mammal house (For breeding purposes, where they are barely visable though). Afaik no luck with breeding them neither...

A few years ago all the animals from NA came to europe in the hopes of establishing a viable population here, sofar it ain't going too well...
 
Yassa said:
There are only 3 Hamlyn`s left in Artis and I havn`t seen any babys in the last years.... not good. Antwerp has 4 females and now 2 males, no breeding neither in the last years. Hopefully the new male from London will change this soon. Breeding must be increased soon or it is too late for this species in western zoos. There are 8 in Leipzig Zoo but only one breeding female, while 3 young females and one young male are seperated from the family group (breeding pair + two male offspring). I can just hope that another zoo will take the young adults soon and build up a new breeding group!
Click to expand...

This news is increasing my fear that this species is fading from our European zoos. They seem to go through a definite cycle- a zoo obtains a pair or trio which breed and the group expands,then later there is a die-off and finally(like the ones at Banham & London) the last survivors are moved to another group. It seems Leipzig is the one with the most animals, followed by Antwerp at present.

I think three females from North America were sent to Marwell some years ago and a male born at Edinburgh arrived to join them. Then the group simply disappeared- I know not where....:confused:
 
I've just watched a programme about Twycross on ITV Central. They have one male Hamlyn's (Gus) who is rather nervous, and apparently scared of the girls.

Of the three females mentioned Missel was exported (to a location not mentioned), Topaz went to La Palmyre and Veronica (a bit of a bully) to West Berlin. In exchange West Berlin sent Thea, she and Gus seem to be getting along at the moment. So it would seem that a breeding programme is still active for this species. I hope so.
 
That's very interesting. It ties in with when I last saw that group, there were 1.3. At least the females have not been dying, rather they've been transferred to other groups. If the male is timid, its probably better for him in just a pair situation so I can see the sense in these moves.
 
Three questions:

How old is "Gus" at Twycross Zoo??
Is "Thea" still at Twycross Zoo??
Are there any Owl-faced-monkeys at Colchester Zoo??

The last male from London, "Zuri" (born in 1999), went to Leipzig from Berlin Zoo 2 weeks ago to breed with 2 young females from the Leipzig breeding group ("Cora" and "Klara"). 1,1 old hamlyn-monkeys, "Kerstin" (born 1989 at Leipzig) and "Niels" (born 1986? in Amsterdam?) died in february.
 
BjoernN said:
Three questions:

How old is "Gus" at Twycross Zoo??
Is "Thea" still at Twycross Zoo??
Are there any Owl-faced-monkeys at Colchester Zoo??
Click to expand...

1. Not sure without a studbook to refer to. He is mature but not old I think.
2. She was in June last year, they are still listed as 1.1.
3. No- never have been. Banham Zoo in Norfolk had them previously though not for some years.
 
@Pertinax
Do you know, where "Gus" came from?? Did Twycross ever breed Owl-Faced-Monkeys??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top