The Golden bellied capuchin

Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
That is really interesting @AWP , is the educational signage on this species good at Amersfoort ?
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I can't remember the signage as it was probably at my visit in 2004 that I saw the golden-belleid capuchin in Amersfoort for the first time. I was aware of the lion tamarins as endangered monkeys of the Atlantic forests before that, but at that point I first learned about the existence of an endangered species of capuchin from that regio.
 
AWP said:
I can't remember the signage as it was probably at my visit in 2004 that I saw the golden-belleid capuchin in Amersfoort for the first time. I was aware of the lion tamarins as endangered monkeys of the Atlantic forests before that, but at that point I first learned about the existence of an endangered species of capuchin from that regio.
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I think it comes as a suprise to a lot of Brazilians too that there are endangered capuchin species in the country as the tufted capuchin is a very ubiquitous animal and is even found in either natural or invasive populations in big cities like São Paulo and Rio.

That said, sadly there are also a lot of people who even if they were to learn about the plight of the species wouldn't ultimately care and if learning that the driver of a future extinction is the Atlantic rainforest being logged to oblivion in Bahia State then the attitude (similar towards the Amazon) is "out of sight out of mind" or in more cruder terms "who gives a damn?"
 
My idea it that the lion tamarins (golden and golden-headed) are getting much attention for years in Europe, but the awareness of the threatened Atlantic rainforests as a whole is something of recent years. I have read articles about projects in some reserves in Brazil (can't remember which, have to look it up) a couple of weeks ago and this week I read about a "zero deforestation" law in the Paraguayan part of the forest, so these are good notes.

Regarding lion tamarins, I was amazed some years ago when I saw a almost complete black one in Lisboa Zoo, didn't know that species existed.
 
They have these in shaldon, and I've seen them in Newquay zoo too.

Enclosure wize were older style cage types in both. Not massive but not cramped.

Initially 2 brothers who escaped, thses if I remember correctly moved to Newquay when shaldon received a breeding pair. They bred exceptionally well but there were issues keeping the elder sons in the group and were split off into a separate group for a while. Mainly males born I think 4 or 5 males before a female was produced. And the 2 boys they started with were due to being rejected by their family group.

Lovely primates though,
 
Some years ago, in one of our old walk-and-talk sessions with Tim Rowlands when he was Curator of Mammals at Chester, he told us that one of their problems with this species was sex determination. If I remember correctly*, he said that they thought that all the first four or five youngsters bred at Chester were male, but when they had to anaesthetise one of them they found it was female. I presume that now they either do the same examination if an animal needs treatment or take a hair sample for DNA analysis when they microchip each youngster with minimal restraint.
* if I have got this wrong, I hope someone else who was present will correct me :)
 
Golden bellied capuchins at Tierpark Berlin, no luck finding shots of the enclosure though:

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Photo credits to @Dianamonkey and @Mattaki.
 
AWP said:
My idea it that the lion tamarins (golden and golden-headed) are getting much attention for years in Europe, but the awareness of the threatened Atlantic rainforests as a whole is something of recent years. I have read articles about projects in some reserves in Brazil (can't remember which, have to look it up) a couple of weeks ago and this week I read about a "zero deforestation" law in the Paraguayan part of the forest, so these are good notes.

Regarding lion tamarins, I was amazed some years ago when I saw a almost complete black one in Lisboa Zoo, didn't know that species existed.
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Well I think you are definitely right about that with regards to the lion tamarins (including the black lion tamarin) and I would say not just in Europe but also here in Brazil.

In fact one of the historic reasons why the buffy headed and buffy tufted marmosets and their decline and threats in the wild went unnoticed for so long by NGO's, authorities and zoos is in no small part due to the innordinate focus on the golden lion and black lion tamarins which overshadowed these species.

The Atlantic rainforest and its conservation as a whole tends to be very much neglected in comparison to the Amazon and that is why so much of this ecosystem has disappeared to deforestation over the decades.
 
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Sausagefingers said:
They have these in shaldon, and I've seen them in Newquay zoo too.

Enclosure wize were older style cage types in both. Not massive but not cramped.

Initially 2 brothers who escaped, thses if I remember correctly moved to Newquay when shaldon received a breeding pair. They bred exceptionally well but there were issues keeping the elder sons in the group and were split off into a separate group for a while. Mainly males born I think 4 or 5 males before a female was produced. And the 2 boys they started with were due to being rejected by their family group.

Lovely primates though,
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Oh yes, forgot about Shaldon so thank you for mentioning it @Sausagefingers !

Yes, have seen some pictures of the enclosure in the gallery it doesn't seem bad at all IMO and seems like it makes the best use of the space available.

Thats great to hear about these animals and their individual stories, do you remember the names of any of these animals that were kept at Shaldon ?
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Oh yes, forgot about Shaldon so thank you for mentioning it @Sausagefingers !

Yes, have seen some pictures of the enclosure in the gallery it doesn't seem bad at all IMO and seems like it makes the best use of the space available.

Thats great to hear about these animals and their individual stories, do you remember the names of any of these animals that were kept at Shaldon ?
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Borba and kizzy were the breeding pair, if I remember right one came from Zurich? The other maybe ammersfoor or romangne. Rings a bell.
 
gentle lemur said:
Some years ago, in one of our old walk-and-talk sessions with Tim Rowlands when he was Curator of Mammals at Chester, he told us that one of their problems with this species was sex determination. If I remember correctly*, he said that they thought that all the first four or five youngsters bred at Chester were male, but when they had to anaesthetise one of them they found it was female. I presume that now they either do the same examination if an animal needs treatment or take a hair sample for DNA analysis when they microchip each youngster with minimal restraint.
* if I have got this wrong, I hope someone else who was present will correct me :)
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Thanks for sharing @gentle lemur !

That is really interesting, I wouldn't of that it would be so hard to determine the sex of these animals, that is very odd indeed :confused:

Do you know how many animals are in the Chester group by any chance and how much success they have had with breeding them ?
 
There were new founder brought into Europe in the early to mid 2010s if I remember right. A few females due to the male bias in the breeding program?

The exhibit was constructed in shaldon with 2 external exhibits and 2 internal houses. I think this was down to a mixture of a lack of holders interested in bachelor groups and a history of males being kicked out of breeding groups more often then other capuchins. This was many years ago so I could well be mistaken.
 
@AWP Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the programes for the golden and black lion tamarins and these have been very successful and commendable.

However, there is absolutely no getting away from the fact that the myopic focus on these species has come at a very damaging cost to aurita and flaviceps and that these species were historically failed as a result.
 
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Sausagefingers said:
There were new founder brought into Europe in the early to mid 2010s if I remember right. A few females due to the male bias in the breeding program?

The exhibit was constructed in shaldon with 2 external exhibits and 2 internal houses. I think this was down to a mixture of a lack of holders interested in bachelor groups and a history of males being kicked out of breeding groups more often then other capuchins. This was many years ago so I could well be mistaken.
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Thanks for sharing @Sausagefingers !

Do you know where these founders were sourced from in Brazil ?

I would imagine these came from some of the larger zoos in the country like Belo Horizonte, Rio and São Paulo and probably the Rio primate center too.

I'll post some shots of the Shaldon enclosures here on the thread because they really do illustrate a nice enclosure that makes very good use of the space for the animals.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Thanks for sharing @Sausagefingers !

Do you know where these founders were sourced from in Brazil ?

I would imagine these came from some of the larger zoos in the country like Belo Horizonte, Rio and São Paulo and probably the Rio primate center too.

I'll post some shots of the Shaldon enclosures here on the thread because they really do illustrate a nice enclosure that makes very good use of the space for the animals.
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Sao Paulo and rio primate Centre I think. It was a while ago but they were one of the animals I couldn't help but being fascinated with.
 
Sausagefingers said:
Sao Paulo and rio primate Centre I think. It was a while ago but they were one of the animals I couldn't help but being fascinated with.
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Ah I see so they were Carioca and Paulista capuchins :D

What memories do you have of these guys ?

I mean any particularly strong memories of their behaviours or antics at the zoo ?
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Shaldon zoo golden bellied capuchin monkey enclosures, UK:

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Shots of the Shaldon capuchins themselves:

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Also some really great signage on capuchin behaviour and communication:

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Photo credits to @gulogulogulo , @mhale , @James27 , @Maguari and @ThomasNotTom.
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The photos without the wooden struts are from the brothers enclosure which they escaped from, this has been rebuilt as the new margay enclosure. The nice people at Dartmoor zoo came down with a dart gun that thankfully didn't need to be used in the end.
 
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