Paignton Zoo news at Paignton zoo

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I've been to the zoo this morning but didn't manage to unearth anything new. Another pole has been planted on the orangutan island opposite the gibbon house. I think they are working on it in slow motion though, and meanwhile the orangs have to stay indoors. Demo and Mali haven't been outside since they arrived and Demo is looking a bit threadbare in places.
Quote of the day from a small girl to her father: " I don't want to see the boring monkeys".
 
Will this bridge mean both species can travel across it to each enclosure? Or just the gibbons into the outdoor Orangutan enclosure?
 
It's just for the gibbons. As yet, we can't work out how they'll stop the orangs climbing up the poles (maybe it won't matter if they do) but I imagine the link to the gibbon house will only accommodate gibbons.
 
They could try a wide metal disk(like they used to stop rats boarding ships or climbing bird tables) or alternatively grease the bottom to make it slippery. But knowing what Orangutans are like these would probably merely present temporary challenges for them to overcome.;)

Where is the 'Gibbon House' situated? I don't remember this- only the ones on the lake islands.
 
Could be fun! The gibbon house is below the bongo enclosure and just before the entrance to lemur wood, in one of the areas previously just used for viewing the far end of the orang island. It is 'fairly' new and just houses 2 gibbons, Naomi the grey gibbon, and Blondie the lar gibbon. Blondie was removed from the main gibbon island to prevent her breeding with her father. Naomi is her companion and is in her 40s, so is not very active. They have a small outdoor enclosure attached to the house where they can swing around a bit. I understood they were looking for a mate for Blondie some time ago. She responds enthusiastically to people and as a result has to endure a lot of banging on the glass, flashes in her face etc.
There are now only 3 lar gibbons on the lake island, with another house near the train station for a pair of pileated gibbons, with access to a different island. Not a lot for a zoo that has a gibbon as its emblem.
 
as you said its a shame as the gibbon collection used to be pretty good, is there any plans to expand it in the future?
 
Gigit said:
The gibbon house is below the bongo enclosure and just before the entrance to lemur wood, in one of the areas previously just used for viewing the far end of the orang island.
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Historically Paignton have never had a lot of Gibbon species(unlike Twycross which does)- they are just well known for them- I think because of the Lar family(or several families) which has lived for a very long time on the island in the Lake. I've seen a single Pileated gibbon in the old Monkey house, there may have been other species in the past but I don't remember them. I'm glad they have a pair of Pileateds now.

Maybe the young female Lar can get a mate and these will then use the Orangutan's island. It would make a good display. Jersey mixed Lar gibbons with their Orangutans too-again I think it was to make the outdoor exhibit look more 'used' and it works okay as far as I know.
 
I would prefer they will start with breeding their pileated gibbons and get another gibbon species.

Perhaps Mueller's from Borneo in. The latter are vulnerable in the wild and could do with a lot more attention from western zoos. On Kalimantan there is a great project for rehabilitating orphaned and confiscated gibbons (both agile and Mueller's) and at the moment they are in dire need of short term support. I wish zoos would step in to counter the shortfall and invest in a sound gibbon conservation project at Kalaweit.
 
Pertinax said:
Historically Paignton have never had a lot of Gibbon species(unlike Twycross which does)- they are just well known for them- I think because of the Lar family(or several families) which has lived for a very long time on the island in the Lake. I've seen a single Pileated gibbon in the old Monkey house, there may have been other species in the past but I don't remember them. I'm glad they have a pair of Pileateds now.
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Paignton have had many gibbon species....as well as the muellers, pileated and lar, they have also had agile and moloch gibbons. Their collection was second only to Twycross in the UK for a while. Not all the gibbons were maintained on the islands....some were housed up behind the old monkey house at different points in time.

Are there many Mueller's left in captivity? Banham was the last viable UK group but they seem to have vanished...now there are only two elderly animals at different UK zoos.
 
Pertinax said:
Historically Paignton have never had a lot of Gibbon species(unlike Twycross which does)- they are just well known for them- I think because of the Lar family(or several families) which has lived for a very long time on the island in the Lake. I've seen a single Pileated gibbon in the old Monkey house, there may have been other species in the past but I don't remember them. I'm glad they have a pair of Pileateds now.

Maybe the young female Lar can get a mate and these will then use the Orangutan's island. It would make a good display. Jersey mixed Lar gibbons with their Orangutans too-again I think it was to make the outdoor exhibit look more 'used' and it works okay as far as I know.
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I've seen the mixed exhibit at Jersey and thought that both species benefitted from it so hope the same will happen at Paignton. I believe the 3 Lar gibbons left on the lake island are a mother and 2 youngsters, the father having died, so no chance of any breeding there at the moment. I haven't heard of any plans for acquiring new gibbons - but that doesn't mean there aren't any.
 
johnstoni said:
Paignton have had many gibbon species....as well as the muellers, pileated and lar, they have also had agile and moloch gibbons. Their collection was second only to Twycross in the UK for a while. Not all the gibbons were maintained on the islands....some were housed up behind the old monkey house at different points in time.
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I can't ever remember seeing more than the odd single or pair of Gibbons in the old Monkey house- though I'm not disputing the've had the variety of species you mention over time. I wouldn't have classed their collection on a par with Twycross though.

As Jelle said, I'd like to see them concentrate now on the Pileated in particular. As they obviously only want to keep Gibbons on open islands nowadays, maybe they've only really got room for one or two species(on the island Lakes and with the Orangutans?)
 
johnstoni said:
Are there many Mueller's left in captivity? Banham was the last viable UK group but they seem to have vanished...now there are only two elderly animals at different UK zoos.
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The Kalaweit center maintains at least 50-60 Mueller's gibbons of various subspecies living on Kalimantan. Surely, some individuals here could be rehomed in European and Indonesian zoos as an assurance breeding population and educational tool to their in situ conservation. Kalaweit would receive lots of publicity and much needed funds to operate.

In a similar vein: in Cambodia the government confiscation station at Angkor keeps quite a few pileated gibbons in breeding capacity. These could all become part of the world zoo population and bring in much needed young females to the EEP programme (some US zoos keeps them, but very few and I do not know whether they have a coop of their own).
 
It would certainly make proper use of the remaining zoo stock if global programmes were enacted with the cooperation of conservation partners in asia, as simple exchanges of animals to provide unrelated pairs could really kickstart ex situ breeding.
 
Pertinax said:
I can't ever remember seeing more than the odd single or pair of Gibbons in the old Monkey house- though I'm not disputing the've had the variety of species you mention over time. I wouldn't have classed their collection on a par with Twycross though.
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Yes, Twycross does have a huge gibbon collection. I first saw Paignton at the end of the 80s, there were several groups on islands then, plus a couple in the old monkey house and in tall cages further back from this. The tall cages didn't appear to be on-exhibit but the tops of them were visible over the service buildings.
 
Pertinax said:
As Jelle said, I'd like to see them concentrate now on the Pileated in particular. As they obviously only want to keep Gibbons on open islands nowadays, maybe they've only really got room for one or two species(on the island Lakes and with the Orangutans?)
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They could keep 3 species - one with the orangutans, one on the traditional island in the lake and the pileated where they are now. They have a bridge over to another island where the marabou stork hang out. I'll have to check more closely next time I go, but I think the howler monkeys go onto that same island.
 
johnstoni said:
I first saw Paignton at the end of the 80s, there were several groups on islands then, plus a couple in the old monkey house and in tall cages further back from this. The tall cages didn't appear to be on-exhibit but the tops of them were visible over the service buildings.
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Paignton's old monkey house. Originally it was just the indoor areas with outdoor cages at the front. A 'Monkey row' extended along the side but these cages weren't connected to the House. Later a range of about 4 taller very cheaply constructed outdoor cages was built behind the Monkey House and possibly these are the ones your referring to here. They could be accessed by the public and they connected via trapdoors to the indoor cages along the rear wall of the Monkey House. There were various inhabitants, Diana monkeys, King/black Colobus & the odd Gibbon(s). The last gibbon I saw in this house was a single Pileated- perhaps one of the pair they have now?

I think only Lars have been kept on the Lake islands, at least until recently.
 
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