Old world monkeys in Latin American zoos

Onychorhynchus coronatus

Onychorhynchus coronatus

Well-Known Member
Hey Zoochatters,

I thought it would be an interesting concept to create a series of threads similar to those in other country / region forums on this site discussing different species kept across the region of Latin America ( I know Mexico is North America but it is included in this thread as part of the region based on it being a culturally Latin American country).

For the second post (and keeping with the primate theme) I thought I'd go with old world monkeys that are kept in zoos in the region. I'm sure there are more of these kept than gibbons so this will probably be a bit more challenging.

Does anyone know zoos where old world monkeys are kept within the region ?

What species are kept and how many individuals ?

What are the enclosures like and are they adequate ?


Muchas Gracias / Obrigado / Thank you
 
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So begining with mandrills in Mexico and Brazil (starting with these countries as they are the ones I know best) :

Mexico :

Chapultepec zoo - A single male individual

Guadalajara zoo - A small breeding group.

Africam Safari - A fairly large breeding group of these monkeys.

Morelia Zoo - A small breeding group.

Brazil :

Sorocaba zoo - 1 elderly female diabetic individual (quite ironically called "Mel" / "honey").

Bauru zoo- A single male individual.

Belo Horizonte zoo - A small group - @David Matos Mendes could you add some more information to this ? I dont know the zoo particularly well.

Rio zoo - A small breeding group.


I'm sure there are a lot more zoos in these countries that keep these so please feel free to update this list.
 
Guenons and colobus monkeys

Mexico :

Chapultepec zoo - 1 Spot nosed monkey (now sadly deceased) was kept here.

Guadalajara zoo - De Brazza's monkey, a small breeding group currently kept here.

Brazil :

Sao Paulo aquarium - Colobus monkey , a couple of individuals kept here (originally obtained from a Russian zoo).

Chile :

Buin zoo: Colobus monkey, apparently a breeding group is currently (or was) kept here.


Argentina :

Temaiken zoo : Colobus monkey, a breeding group is kept here.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
So begining with mandrills in Mexico and Brazil (starting with these countries as they are the ones I know best) :

Mexico :

Chapultepec zoo - A single male individual

Guadalajara zoo - A small breeding group.

Africam Safari - A fairly large breeding group of these monkeys.

Morelia Zoo - A small breeding group.

Brazil :

Sorocaba zoo - 1 elderly female diabetic individual (quite ironically called "Mel" / "honey").

Bauru zoo- A single male individual.

Belo Horizonte zoo - A small group - @David Matos Mendes could you add some more information to this ? I dont know the zoo particularly well.

Rio zoo - A small breeding group.


I'm sure there are a lot more zoos in these countries that keep these so please feel free to update this list.
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Oh, unfortunately, I gotta say we keep no mandrills in Belo Horizonte anymore... The last individual ( a male called "Palauan" ) passed away in 2013. His exhibit was actually quite large and enriched, but he was alone for a few years after his mate "Fusarka " died; but I know that Brusque zoo (an actually small zoo with mostly native animals) also keeps mandrills; They are the male "Catuly" and his daughter "Catarina". The male is father of many mandris around brazilian zoos.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Oh, unfortunately, I gotta say we keep no mandrills in Belo Horizonte anymore... The last individual ( a male called "Palauan" ) passed away in 2013. His exhibit was actually quite large and enriched, but he was alone for a few years after his mate "Fusarka " died; but I know that Brusque zoo (an actually small zoo with mostly native animals) also keeps mandrills; They are the male "Catuly" and his daughter "Catarina". The male is father of many mandris around brazilian zoos.
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Quite a shame to hear that mandrills have gone from BH zoo. Do you know if they intend to obtain more of this species in the future?

I'll check out the Brusque zoo, I've never heard of this place so will be interesting to read more.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Oh, unfortunately, I gotta say we keep no mandrills in Belo Horizonte anymore... The last individual ( a male called "Palauan" ) passed away in 2013. His exhibit was actually quite large and enriched, but he was alone for a few years after his mate "Fusarka " died; but I know that Brusque zoo (an actually small zoo with mostly native animals) also keeps mandrills; They are the male "Catuly" and his daughter "Catarina". The male is father of many mandris around brazilian zoos.
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Also, I think Rio zoo no longer keeps mandrills anymore too, but I'm not totally sure
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Quite a shame to hear that mandrills have gone from BH zoo. Do you know if they intend to obtain more of this species in the future?

I'll check out the Brusque zoo, I've never heard of this place so will be interesting to read more.
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Yes, it's a shame... I could only actually see this mandrill in BH once, in the year of 2013, when he was already very old... Now, in the exhibit he lived, the zoo keeps a large reproductive group of wooly monkeys (this is the exhibit I told you that the zoo would probably house the siamangs in case they came). Unfortunately, I think the zoo has no plans to bring the mandrills again.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yes, it's a shame... I could only actually see this mandrill in BH once, in the year of 2013, when he was already very old... Now, in the exhibit he lived, the zoo keeps a large reproductive group of wooly monkeys (this is the exhibit I told you that the zoo would probably house the siamangs in case they came). Unfortunately, I think the zoo has no plans to bring the mandrills again.
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I guess there is a bit of a silver lining to the loss of that last mandrill though (as sad as it is) because now the enclosure can be dedicated over to building up the population of native wooly monkeys, endangered here in Brazil.

That said, it is a bit of a catch-22 situation as I do really think that bringing the siamangs there from Goiânia zoo and housing them in that enclosure would be an awesome idea. From an animal welfare perspective it would be a move that would really benefit the wellbeing of this pair.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I guess there is a bit of a silver lining to the loss of that last mandrill though (as sad as it is) because now the enclosure can be dedicated over to building up the population of native wooly monkeys, endangered here in Brazil.

That said, it is a bit of a catch-22 situation as I do really think that bringing the siamangs there from Goiânia zoo and housing them in that enclosure would be an awesome idea. From an animal welfare perspective it would be a move that would really benefit the wellbeing of this pair.
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Yes, I also think... It would be really nice to keep a reproduction program for these guys here... I think you mentioned once that they might not be reproducing in Goiânia because of the stress they are passing, and I totally agree. Here they would have a really larger home and nothing to bother them. But anyway, it's also very good to have the wooly monkeys here too...
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yes, I also think... It would be really nice to keep a reproduction program for these guys here... I think you mentioned once that they might not be reproducing in Goiânia because of the stress they are passing, and I totally agree. Here they would have a really larger home and nothing to bother them. But anyway, it's also very good to have the wooly monkeys here too...
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Yes, I am not an expert on gibbons but if these are a reproductively viable pair then it seems quite odd that they wouldn't have bred by now considering they have been at that zoo for quite a number of years already.
 
In Colombia it seems like the only old world monkeys would be Hamadryas Baboons, for which multiple zoos hold breeding groups. Barranquilla Zoo used to hold Barbary macaques and Sulawesi crested macaques but both species have died out. Rhesus macaques were once held by multiple institutions, but I doubt any individual is still alive today. A Patas Monkey was also once held by Cali.
 
toto98 said:
In Colombia it seems like the only old world monkeys would be Hamadryas Baboons, for which multiple zoos hold breeding groups. Barranquilla Zoo used to hold Barbary macaques and Sulawesi crested macaques but both species have died out. Rhesus macaques were once held by multiple institutions, but I doubt any individual is still alive today. A Patas Monkey was also once held by Cali.
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Yes, Hamydryas baboons seem to be the most popular Old world monkey species kept within Latin American zoos it would seem. Ease of breeding / care and overall hardiness would probably be factors that influence them being held.

That is quite curious about the Sulawesi crested macaques that you mention were once held at Baranquilla zoo. I wonder where these animals originally came from / how they came to be in Colombia.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
That is quite curious about the Sulawesi crested macaques that you mention were once held at Baranquilla zoo. I wonder where these animals originally came from / how they came to be in Colombia.
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Honestly I do not know the true answer. I saw perhaps 3 individuals in Barranquilla many years back and some other 5 at Pereira. Here is an image: Sulawesi crested macaque - ZooChat

I would suspect that perhaps some individuals could have arrived for animal testing purposes but for some reason were gifted to zoos. I believe that was the case with the Patas monkey in Cali, so I wouldn't be surprised if it may have happened with other species.
 
An easy one to mention here would be langurs.

To the best of my knowledge the only species of langur that I can think of having been in captivity in Latin America is the Hanuman langur and I never actually saw this animal in person so this is annecdotal.

I was once told by a colleague of mine that there was a Hanuman langur held for many years in the Chapultepec Zoo which died as a very elderly animal in the early to mid 1990's.

I have no idea where this animal came from or how it ended up in Mexico (it could have been a former pet or perhaps a diplomatic gift from India / Pakistan / Bangladesh) but I havent heard of any other species being kept by zoos in this area of the world.
 
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toto98 said:
Honestly I do not know the true answer. I saw perhaps 3 individuals in Barranquilla many years back and some other 5 at Pereira. Here is an image: Sulawesi crested macaque - ZooChat

I would suspect that perhaps some individuals could have arrived for animal testing purposes but for some reason were gifted to zoos. I believe that was the case with the Patas monkey in Cali, so I wouldn't be surprised if it may have happened with other species.
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I think it will remain a bit of a mystery how they arrived there but it would be interesting to find out what their story was.

The enclosure at Pereira zoo doesn't look all that good in the photo. What were the conditions at Baranquilla zoo like ? were they any better?

Hmmm, I dont know if this monkey would be exported for medical testing because of its status as a CITES appendix II species.

I tend to think that several other Old world species would be more easier to obtain for use in medical research like the rhesus macaque for example.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I think it will remain a bit of a mystery how they arrived there but it would be interesting to find out what their story was.

The enclosure at Pereira zoo doesn't look all that good in the photo. What were the conditions at Baranquilla zoo like ? were they any better?

Hmmm, I dont know if this monkey would be exported for medical testing because of its status as a CITES appendix II species.

I tend to think that several other Old world species would be more easier to obtain for use in medical research like the rhesus macaque for example.
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The conditions for the species at both zoos were quite bad. I could speculate that perhaps some individuals may have originated from any of the narco-zoos that existed in the country. They used to have animals brought in from very random locations, so it would not surprise me if some macaques made their way into the country that way.

Nonetheless, I've searched for answers on ZIMS and while most of the individuals are reported to have been born in Barranquilla, there is one report of a female brought in from Miami in 1973. It is likely that other individuals that were brought in at the time have not been uploaded into ZIMS. This individual lived up until 1999, so perhaps having lived until a relatively recent time saved her records in comparison to other individuals (?).
 
carlos55 said:
Guadalajara zoo does not have mandrills anymore, the y have 2 groups of guinea baboons.
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Thank you for that update Carlos, this is interesting as this species is a departure from the usual hamydryas baboon that is so common in zoos in the region.

By the way, do you remember seeing the Hanuman langur at Chapultepec that I mentioned in one of my previous comments ?

toto98 said:
The conditions for the species at both zoos were quite bad. I could speculate that perhaps some individuals may have originated from any of the narco-zoos that existed in the country. They used to have animals brought in from very random locations, so it would not surprise me if some macaques made their way into the country that way.

Nonetheless, I've searched for answers on ZIMS and while most of the individuals are reported to have been born in Barranquilla, there is one report of a female brought in from Miami in 1973. It is likely that other individuals that were brought in at the time have not been uploaded into ZIMS. This individual lived up until 1999, so perhaps having lived until a relatively recent time saved her records in comparison to other individuals (?).
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Yes, I think that one picture you linked into the comment really highlighted how basic these conditions were.

If I remember correctly Pablo Escobar was quite notorious for importing in all kinds of animals of both the ABC variety and some obscurer kinds.

Even so it is really strange if these Sulawesi macaques were brought into the country by narcos for a private zoo, very random indeed.

That is interesting about the macaque that lived up until 1999 because this animal probably lived well into her 30's which must be close to the maximum lifespan in captivity, a ripe old age.
 
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