How was the Colobus Kingdom looking how are the trees holding up so far?
ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2025
- Thread starter aquilla1
- Start date
And for anyone looking at the primates, are the 4 Diana monkeys together now?
cerperal
Well-Known Member
Do you mean Monkey Valley? This is a photo I took this week (complete with all Colobus out and putting on quite a show). The trees have been stripped above a certain level but there's still a total carpet of leaves beneath the walkway. From both an external and visitor perspective, I genuinely think it looks fantastic. Just needs some birds now...
Unfortunately still split. I've only seen 2 females in the enclosure closest Barclay Court and the male in the one visible from inside Gorilla Kingdom, but I think the other female is with the male - I thought I saw her from a distance but couldn't confirm close up.
Attachments
Dr. Loxodonta
Well-Known Member
Apparently plans fell through due to Avian Flu fears, which I think is fair enough. Still, it’s a real shame.
Makes sense. Also a good excuse not to bother with birds.
Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Not quite. There are a pair in the second smaller walkthrough as @Crowthorne suggests, a female in the main walkthrough and a male in one of the separate aviaries you mention. Saying that, I haven't seen the male in the additional aviary on any recent visits, so it is probable that he has moved to join the female in the main walkthrough so as to set up two breeding pairs. Still, there are definitely still trogons in the smaller walkthrough.
Brilliant news about the sengis. I've missed them dearly.
The 2 females, Dayo and Moxie are still in seperate enclosure
Wasn’t there also concern about an indoor facility for the birds. Don’t think it was in the plans
Kalaw
Well-Known Member
I'm sure turacos at the very least were mentioned in the plans somewhere, but yes, there were concerns about heating the indoor facility (which were also a big part of why Snowdon went out of birds in the first place, I've been told).
Last time I spoke to a keeper about the subject, they mentioned that they still go back and forth regularly on whether or not it is possible / desirable to bring in birds in the long-term. It may well happen at one point, but don't expect it soon.
From what I can remember when Monkey Valley plans were announced, the birds were going to be African Grey Parrots
Yes it is looking good agree some bird species would be a great idea
cerperal
Well-Known Member
There only being 2 females would make an awful lot more sense, and explain why I only conclusively saw 3 monkeys - no idea where I got the idea there's 3 females from
Indeed it was, and Spike is due to be PTS at the end of the summer according to a volunteer. They both passed their quality of life assessments a few weeks ago but Morombe dramatically took a turn for the worse, with his brother not much better.
Also, in slightly lighter news - the coati escaped today apparently. From what I've heard from someone who was there it sort of ran around Animal Adventure for a bit having a bit of an explore before a keeper came and returned it to its exhibit
Last edited:
They thought they had. In prep for the new exhibit they gave the monkeys branches of leaves from different trees and watched to see which ones they didn’t touch / like to eat.
Seems like they didn’t like branches of leaves but loved the whole tree of leaves once they moved in!
Regarding the Dianas, there are (or there were) three females, the third one being the much older survivor of the previous pair. Whether you would have seen her or not I don't know.
Indeed early plans for Monkey Valley included African grey parrots (and red duikers too).
Are the exhibits to the left entering Rainforest Life still holding bokyboky? Had a random thought on those enclosures earlier today - as black and rufous sengi are spreading through Europe like wildfire of late, I think those specific exhibits would suit them nicely with a little bit more foliage - they're the right height with regards to visitors and size...