I don't know if its my imagination but Barbary Macaques seem to be springing up at several collections are they going to be the next tick box ticked or is there another reason for it - most seem to be coming from the rescue centre in Holland ?
They are endangered so they do need (and have) a breeding program. They could be all over Europe but since they are primates they wont be around globally.
According to ZTL, 154 collections have Barbary macaques. I must admit that is a higher figure than I expected. 544 collections have meerkats. That 390 gap is still quite high.
There are only 10 holders in the UK, of which 3 are monkey 'sanctuaries', 2 safari parks and one largely a farm park, hardly common in zoos here compared to Meerkat (over 100 including minor places not listed on ZTL), Asian small clawed otters, Red-necked Wallaby, ring-tailed lemurs, Squirrel monkeys.......
I'm not suggesting at all they are getting anywhere near the above - it just seems to me that all of a sudden they have started becoming popular in zoos i remember seeing my first group at chessington in the late 1970's early 80's and not seeing them again till about 5 years ago monkey haven,woburn , kent place ive forgotten the name of now at jimmys - i'm all for more macaques would like to see more pig tailed ,crab eating and rhesus to be honest
I liked seeing Toque macaques at Strasbourg Zoo. I spent a long time looking at how they interacted. Even my friend seemed interested, even though she wasn't bothered when we went to Cologne's Saki and Uakari House in 1982.
In my opinion are babary macaques one of the best possible primate species to keep in zoos. They are first of all very popular (well most monkey species are). But they are in particular a very active species. They are aswell one of the most easy to keep species too. They don't need specialized food, they are unlike any other primate species (besides the japanese macaques) able to handle colder tempartures in winter (which means they don't need a large indoor space, which in gneral is one of the major problems of keeping primates in many zoos, both for costs and animal welfare). They are aswell well suited for both walk trough and mixed species enclosures. And unlike meerkats an endangered species, which is another major reason for keeping them. And even though, that they are one of my favourite primate species overall. They are for me aswell the "average monkey" species. Which comes mostly that they are the second monkey species are I every saw, and are infact the mascot of my local Zoo (Naturzoo Rheine). Where they have a marvelous walk trough exhibit, with the exact strengths I talked about. Espicially for smaler zoos and zoos in colder regions are they a perfect species too keep.
(ahem) hoped we could start to shake that title by now and start being referred to as a "wildlife park", but never mind. triggered! As for us getting barbary macaques....it came down to a discussion about what was hardy enough to live in a relatively exposed area of the wildlife park during the winter months, what was endangered and in need of our contribution to the breeding programme, and what we could do to help some rescues that had a rough life. We threw around a fair few different suggestions for primate species, but this was the only one that could tick each box for us right now. I don't think they'll be the new meerkat though. There are many many other species waiting in line for that!
....as well as the camels, anteater, tapir, crocodiles, reindeer, guanacos, ratites, capys, pelicans etc.
At the same time, several species of officially threatened macaques: bonnet, toque, tonkean, moor and bear are becoming extinct in European zoos. I hope Barbary macaques will be demoted to small institutions without heated quarters, and other macaques will take place in larger zoos!
Simply huge numbers of Barbary Macaques are currently surplus on ZIMs, presumably looking for new holders. EAZA has all species of Macaque listed for 'phasing out' - excepting only Barbary, Lion-tailed and Celebes Black - so if the large zoos with heated quarters want to keep anything else, they will have to break EAZA membership rules. So - if other species survive in Europe, they will be in non-EAZA collections.
It's a pity Japanese are being phased out - much more attractive than Barbary, in my opinion, and even better suited for European climates - but it cannot be helped, really.
More collections by far already hold Barbary than do Japanese so I don't think they need the additional space getting rid of Japanese would create - but you are correct that Barbary are the rarer in the wild.... although two of the species being phased out are lower in wild population than Barbary.
edit - I had only scanned ZIMs in passing, but a closer (albeit still brief) look just now, shows 88 Barbary Macaques surplus in Europe... and 77 Meerkats...
Are you talking within BIAZA and EAZA collections, or a wider worldwide search? I limited mine to solely BIAZA & EAZA and there were only 7.2 available
