That all sounds familiar like, but then with great apes - gorillas. Could there possibly not be a hormonal cum nutritional connection relating to infertility?
Owl-faced monkeys (Cercopithecus hamlyni) in Europe
- Thread starter BjoernN
- Start date
The Hamlyn's I've observed( five Zoos) are fairly quiet and seem rather nervous, compared to some of the bolder Guenons such as Diana, De Brazza and L'Hoests. At Twycross they were usually kept in close proximity with other species. Was this more the reason for failure to breed, than supposed' low sperm' count?
In Antwerp three of them are living: Jimmel, Kibo and their young Suske
I think this species has a bleak future. The zoos who have invest in new enclosures (Doué, Bojnice) lack of births so far. And the main breeder (Antwerp) got very low interest to invest.
Antwerp is fortunately not the main breeder, looking at the past 10 years Leipzig, La Palmyre and Mulhouse have all had more breeding success. Both Doue and Bojnice have recently received new animals. More holders are certainly needed though.
True. But for the last four years, Antwerp was the main breeder with 3 young of a fairly recent couple. I do not know how long these animals live (up to 20 yrs?) and how many years they are fertile but I looks like most 2010-2015 breeding couples are now less succesfull.
Leipzig only got 2 young last 10 years
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Didn't Bristol zoo once keep this species in their monkey house ? I seem to remember seeing a pair of these years ago there (around the turn of millenium) but it was a long time ago and I could be mistaken about that (Visited Edinburgh zoo around the same time where I might have seen them ) and these might have been another kind of guenon species.
Bristol have never kept Hamlyn's Owl-faced Monkey. They did keep De Brazza's guenon around the time you suggest. Five UK zoos have kept them previously- Edinburgh, London, Marwell, Twycross & Banham, but none do so now.
Last edited:
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Come to think of it I may be confusing a faint memory of seeing Owl faced monkeys at Edinburgh around the same time and swamp monkeys at Bristol.
On the website of La Palmyre I found some interesting information about the evolution of numbers.
Naissance d'un cercopithèque de Hamlyn | Zoo de la Palmyre
It's written in french but if someone is interested I can translate it in English.
Naissance d'un cercopithèque de Hamlyn | Zoo de la Palmyre
It's written in french but if someone is interested I can translate it in English.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
This has historically been an issue for other nervous and highly strung primate species like the pied tamarin when kept in close proximity to other Callitrichids.
There could be a possibility that the same might be happening with Hamlyn's owl monkey kept in proximity with other guenon species.
That said @BjoernN does make a good point about specific cases where this hasn't seemed to negatively impact the success of captive breeding.
A owl-faced monkey (Cercopithecus hamlyni) was born on 2 february to Jimmel en Kibo. There previous youngster Vince and an elderly brother of him live in the samen enclosure.
Great achievement in breeding. Fingers crossed this time a female offspring.
The boy born in 2022 in Antwerp has died due to a bone disease.
In 2022 an owl faced monkey was born in Berlin to the paier Pia (Antwerp) and Pierre (La Palmyre).
Zweiter Nachwuchs bei den Eulenkopfmeerkatzen im Zoo Berlin
In 2022 an owl faced monkey was born in Berlin to the paier Pia (Antwerp) and Pierre (La Palmyre).
Zweiter Nachwuchs bei den Eulenkopfmeerkatzen im Zoo Berlin
In Antwerp 2.1 Hamlyni's moved from the builing with small mankeys to the building with chimps and gorillas. Purpose is the introduction of them with the gorillas.