emporer tamarins at wellington zoo » Wellington Zoo

emporer tamarins at wellington zoo
23-02-2008

Wellington has received a male and female Emporer Tamarin from Melbourne Zoo. As the zoo wants them to form a breeding pair I presuming that Melbourne has two pairs and that these are the offspring of these pairs (ISIS has Melbourne as having 3.3. and Perth 2.2.). Are the Perth lot two pairs. I also think that Alma Park has at least onoe animals, can anyone confirm this for me?

23-02-2008

great, they get emperor tamarins just a couple of weeks AFTER I visit the zoo!

23-02-2008

taronga has stopped displaying this species, but i havent checked ISIS to see if they still hold them.....
off the top of my head, i cannot remember if this species is being kept or not.

23-02-2008

Taronga has no listings on ISIS

24-02-2008

only perth and melbourne have held onto emps - and fortunately they both decided not to phase them out and went with a plan to develop a population of nominate subspecies purebreds.

now last i went melb had one pair on display with the other tamarins and one hybrid (sadly kept alone on the other side of the zoo). they were looking to import more from europe so my guess is that they have, and one pair was brought in on behalf of wellington zoo as new zealand can only import primates via australia.

thats three zoos holding emperors. goodstuff.

currently in australia we have cottontops, emperors, golden-lions, golden-headed lions and common and pygmy marmosets.

since tamarins and marmosets are small and don't take up much room at zoos i actually hope we maintain the lot since collectively, they could make an awesome, super popular exhibit. the whole free-ranging idea is something that is not often adopted and i'm imagining an area like this with little free-ranging troops of each (or taking turns).

think about it - "monkeys in miniature" or something like that.....

24-02-2008

And if the zoos were worried about the tamarins being caught by predators or going where they weren't supposed to ( both situations have happened I beleive in ANZ zoos) then they could create a free flight aviary for people to walk through.
It is an excellent range of small South American primates and let's hope it stays established and even enlarged on.it Alma Park to see what they have.

24-02-2008

i dunno why so few zoo seem interested in common marmosets. i love em' and they are equally as interesting looking as any of the other species - in rio they scurry around in park trees like squirrels.

monash uni i think has a colony for research so there are quite a few here also.

Wellington Zoo
24-02-2008

Given the success that Wellington has had in breeding primates , and the fact that Wellington zoo is unsuitable for many larger animals , I agree it is probably a good move . This is probably Wellington Zoos best point , and I think that they should be encouraged with any primate breeding programme and market the zoo as a primary primate centre for this part of the world

However , thats just my own humble opinion ......

25-02-2008

Marmosets what an idea pat!

25-02-2008

there was a small piece on Wellington's emperor tamarins on tv1 news tonight (and by small I mean about 30 seconds!). Here's a Scoop article Scoop: Emperor tamarins arrive at Wellington Zoo

funny they left in the "note to editors" at the bottom of the item!

05-03-2008

That was the case at Auckland Zoo... The cotton tops used to be free ranging but were constantly found outside their safe zone...

The final straw though was a member of the public suspiciously closing their chilly bin quickly when a keeper walked past... The keeper went up and insisted they open the bin and it got quite heated, luckily the incident happened close to the security portacom and when the chilly bin was opened up, suprise, suprise an adult cotton topped tamarin popped out... Since then the tamarins have been enclosed (nice exhibit though)...

05-03-2008

urgh! don't get me started on the amount of nobheads who want pet monkeys, let alone monkey thieves....

at adelaide a cottontop was eaten by a devil from memory.

to make it safe you need a keeper on duty keeping a eye on them at all times. and they can be trained to respond to a whistle if danger is close by.

i think collectively (numerous species), a free-ranging tamarin exhibit is an a-grade attraction though.....probably worth it.

05-03-2008

you really have t wonder at the intelligence of some people. Personally why would you STEAL something that you didn't have a clue on looking after it. And risk going to jail for it as well.

06-03-2008

or that you can't take outside of show off to people because it would be conspicuous and you would inevitably be caught. which defeats the whole prestige of having a monkey on your shoulder that is the attraction of having a pet monkey.

06-03-2008

From talking to a volunteer that (claims to have) witnessed it, the offender didn't sound too bright...