The golden lion tamarins are back, a pair arrived this summer. They are very active and easily visible in the trees next to the woolly monkey island, together with the red titis, pied tamarin and black-tufted marmosets. Also, another red howler was born on the 15th of July.
The proboscis monkey will leave in the first part of September, so anyone who still wants to see it, will have to hurry
Sad news from Apenheul today . 9 year old Orangutan female Merah was found in the watermoat by a keeper, Unfortunatly the keeper was not in time to save her from drowning. According to a spokesman, a visitor saw her jump in to the moat by her self. CCTV camera footage of the park wil also be reviewd, in order to find out exatly what lead to this tragic accident. Merahs body will be transferd to the University Utrecht, there it will be examined whether there is a special reason for her fall into the water.
Merah From the zoo's website (translation): More clarity about death orangutan Thursday, September 10th, 2015 Wednesday September 9th was a black day for Apenheul. Orangutan Merah drowned around a quarter to 12. Initially it was unclear what was the cause. Orangutans can not swim and are normally very careful with water. Meanwhile, from camera images revealed yesterday unrest prevailed among the orangutans in Apenheul. The images showed that Merah was chased by two older orangutans. Although there are several escape routes, including the inside back or stay up through climbing structures, fled the otherwise cautious Merah through the water. She took a big leap to reach the nearby island. Unfortunately, after they were caught in the middle of the canal and she managed not to still near the shore. Apenheul has indoor and outdoor stay just so arranged that the animals have adequate opportunities to look at each other or avoid each other correctly. More on this can be seen in this film which is about the stay of the orangutans. We pass these fateful event was thoroughly analyze and view or to prevent it and how to avoid this in the future. The video of Merah is not made public because we find these violent images to display.
Similar has happened with other Apes too. An adult male Chimp at Arnhem being chased by others(not in play, in aggression) did similar. He had crossed the moat once before, when it was previously frozen and perhaps thought he could do it again. He drowned. The Urban Gorilla film shows a young female Gorilla in a US Zoo(L.A?) take a flying leap across a dry moat in order to escape an aggressive silverback- she fell short and down into the moat, which if it had been waterfilled would have resulted in drowning. I think she was not hurt(badly anyway). Watermoat accidents continue to happen....
This week a Javan langur ( also Javan Lutung or Ebony leaf monkey ) was born. This was the first in 5 years time.
The former Probocis monkey exhibit will house a Group of Collared mangabeys in the next season. For the future it is planned to keep the mangabeys on the Gorilla Island together with Gorillas and L´Hoest guenons, but this will have to wait until the old patas monkey(s) will die.