To confirm news mentioned earlier; (from the zoos website) On the 12th December Cherry Crowned Mangabey’s Kanye & Suna welcomed their first young together! Both mum and her new arrival are doing very well. The new arrival can be seen with our pair in their enclosure, Mangabey Mangrove, clinging on to mum during these early stages, it won’t be long before the youngster is busy exploring the area and learning the ropes of a mangabey monkey!
This is the first time I've ever heard of them breeding here. I wonder if that is the case or whether previous young have not survived?
One interesting thing from this (aside from the birth itself) is that the pair was actually a male-female one the whole time. I certainly thought (and it seems quite a few others on the forum too) thought that it was actually a father-son pair. I know Colchester had two female mangabeys in the old enclosure by the chimps - wonder what happened to the other female? On another note, sharing your date of birth with a baby mangabey is pretty good. I'm not sure how old the photo is, but the pictures of the deer lower down on the 'Island Dwellers' page on the zoo's website show the deer with a fawn. The enclosure in the picture looks very like the zoo's one, albeit with grass. Whether that means the photo is old (meaning the deer bred previously), more recent but the grass has regrown after the pigs churned it up or taken in another zoo I don't know. Island Dwellers - Colchester Zoo
Also the other curiosity due to the chimp development is where have the francious langur gone? They were moved off show in 2015 and as far as I’m aware have never appeared again... according to zootierliste to zoo has 1:1 still (Male from twycross and a female from Howlett) would they still be offshow for 3 years?
The current fawn is smaller than the one in the photo and there is hardly a blade of grass in the paddock currently!
I was wondering this the other day, as there was a sign on the lion tailed macaque outside enclosure for around a year saying the area would be developed for the Francois Langur, but the sign disappeared, the macaque are still there and the Langurs have not been seen for over 2 years! What happened to London's too?
From what I gather, the initial intention was to mix the lion-tailed macaques with the binturongs and small-clawed otters but for whatever reason that either didn't work out or never happened, so no opportunity came to move the langurs before their enclosure at Chimp World was demolished. I think I'm correct in thinking that the blue duiker were actually at the zoo for some time before they went on show and the black-backed jackal seems to go on and off show at the drop of a hat. I could easily imagine the langurs being sequestered away somewhere, possibly in the old bear dens.
According to zootierliste the zoo still has 1:1 langur. A male from twycross and a female from howletts. That binturong/Asian short clawed otter exhibit is one of the most bizarre/wasted spaces in the zoo. (I will tag the the old empty red panda enclosure in with it as it’s next door to it). Also with the old bear dens they have been boarded up and has large plant pots put in front of them and seems as though they have been left to rot...which is a shame even with the enclosures history with the bears.
Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure how useful Zootierliste is for Colchester - just scanning through the list I have found quite a few animals still listed as present that have been absent for a long time. They still have the sacred ibis listed there (I seem to recall them leaving when the Ibis Walk aviary behind the vultures was demolished, probably at least five years ago now) and even more extreme, the white-cheeked turacos (I remember them from the row of aviaries also housing chattering lories, laughing kookaburra and kea, demolished to make way for the South American walkthrough near the entrance, probably close to a decade ago).
I believe anyone can, once they sign up. I tried to sign up several years ago but for whatever reason my account was never verified.
Colchester no longer holds this species. The male died in 2016, and the female was then sent to a French zoo (Besancon).
Mangabeys- Colchester definately had a father-son pair. They sent away three related females( to Holland) and brought in two new unrelated ones from Europe- these were the ones kept in the old enclosure for a time. I am not sure if they still have all four of these,(2.2) plus the new baby. I am trying to establish what the current situation is with them.
Your wish is my command Colchester currently has 2.1.1 mangabeys; the unsexed youngster was born on 12 December. The mother is 'Suna', who came to Colchester from Munster in 2013. The two males are: 'Sputnik', born at Hannover - came to Colchester in 2004 and 'Kanye' - born at Colchester in 2007.
On my visit today, I noticed there is now a sign to say that the young Prince Alfred's deer (as I still call this species) was born on Boxing Day so it is less than three weeks old.
Many thanks. It presumably means the second female has either died or been sent away again. Interesting that the two UK holders of this species, Paignton being the other, both have the same groupings at present- father/son/female/baby.
I forgot there's now a third UK holder of R.C. Mangabey with the more recent pair at the IOW Monkey Haven too, but the other two have been much longer term.
Had a chat with a keeper today who told me a few updates... *The construction work by the lions is actually for a new coloubus/patas monkey enclosure. The lions will be getting a second indoor area in the style of a cave down the bottom after the monkey enclosure is done. *The construction work by chimps is for a new reptile house. The keeper didn't know what species were going to be held. *The pair of Amur Leopards Milena and Sayan are going to be leaving the zoo sometime this year which will mean the leopard enclosures will stand empty for a while. He did say that two new leopards will arrive sometime in the future but the enclosures will stay empty for a bit.
I’m surprised that both leopards will be leaving especially as the exhibit is one of the “star” exhibits for the zoo. And they spent a lot of time and money developing /building it. Where will Milena and Sayan be transferred too? And would it definitely be Amur Leopards that the zoo would be brought in or could the zoo look to bring in another leopard species such as Snow Leopards?
