Gibbons in Latin American Zoos

More information about these Siamangs in Buin Zoo, Chile. Their male came from a zoo in the UK and their female from a zoo in the Czech Republic. This pair actually recently welcomed a baby and it is only a few months old!

Source: Parque Zoológico Buin Zoo - Chile's Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1887466498057581

 

Ipoh’s line is very well represented in New Zealand.

His parents, Itam (1984) and Iuri (1979-2018) had seven offspring:

1) Peggy (1989) at Orana Wildlife Park - three offspring

2) Sue (1991) at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve - two surviving offspring

3) Ipoh (1993) at Chapultepec Zoo - at least one offspring

4) Unnamed/Deceased - no offspring

5) Irian (2001) at Darling Downs Zoo - one offspring

6) Iwani (2003-2015) - no offspring
7) Iberani (2003-2003) - no offspring

Two of Peggy’s offspring remain at Orana Wildlife Park; the other (Kasih) lives at Hamilton Zoo. One of Sue’s offspring remains at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve; the other (Intan) lives at Auckland Zoo.

This gives Ipoh a total of 10 surviving relatives in the Australasian region (eight in New Zealand; two in Australia). It’s possible he also has relatives via his maternal line - as Iuri was born at Adelaide Zoo in 1979.

 

Thanks for giving us an overview of his family @Zoofan15 ! I don't seem to find any information on Ipoh's offspring but I will keep searching. Who would tell that a Siamang from New Zealand ended in Mexico

 

Estimado OC, the siamang at Chapultepec zoo is now housed in the tall enclousure that once held the binturong.

 

Ah I see ! Thanks for this information Carlos !

I remember that enclosure well. Not the worst one in the world to house a siamang in by any means, but far more suited to smaller primates like monkeys or small to medium sized arboreal carnivores rather than apes.

 

Olive Oyl , Oh wow ! , what a name ! hahaha ! , very suitable too as the face does sort of resemble the cartoon character.

Incredible that she was a wild caught animal too, fascinating to learn more about this individuals life story. I think her genetics must have been really important when she was maintained as a breeding animal.

With regards to the offspring I wonder whether this could in fact be the solitary individual of Zacango / Chapultepec zoos ?

I'll try to find out some more information about this individual during the week ahead.

 

Thanks for this additional information WhistlingKite24 ! Much appreciated!

I still wonder which UK zoo the male siamang came from , could it have been Twycross ? or perhaps Chester, Marwell or the Aspinall parks ? (Those are the only ones that I know keep the siamang but I'm sure there are many more)

 

@David Matos Mendes Do you know roughly how many years the siamang pair have been at the Goiânia Zoo ?

I think it could also be very interesting to somehow find out where these individuals originally came from as I guess they are by this time the only members of their species kept in Brazil and therefore quite unique.

 

Candidate zoos in Czech Republic: Dvorec (last records 2012+), Ostrava (till 2007) or Zlin-Lesna (last records 2011+).

 

Oh, yes, these are the only and I bet most mysterious gibbons in Brazil

it's weird because when you search for them in google, you won't find any articles or news about them; I only know they exist because i've seen them personaly in 2018, but for incredible (or weird) that it seems, there's no information sign on their exhibit, so I was lucky that I knew what they were, otherwise I'd just confuse them with spider monkeys as most of the people do (their exhibit is right next to the spider monkeys, and these others actually have an information sign on their enclosure)

This issue of the sign unfortunately doesn't look temporary, once, when an uncle of mine went to Goiânia zoo a few months after I did, i asked him to observe if there was an information sign already, and he said there wasn't... Anyway, the zoo is now passing through a renovation, and I hope they improve this and other aspects on their Siamang gibbon keeping.

Now talking abou how long they have been there and their origin; this is probably the topic that I have less knowledge about these animals... I cannot even imagine where these two came from, nor how long they have been there (they're there at least since 2012, cause I''ve seen a video in youtube showing them in this date), but I'm gonna try to ask the zoo directly in their social media, and see if they answer me. Once I still don't know a lot about these gibbons, I'll do another post in this thread to tell what I've found out.

In case somebody wants to see how their enclosure looks like, I'll let the links of some videos I recorded in my last visit to zoo Goiânia:

20180128101611.MTS

20180128101828.MTS

20180128101704.MTS

 

Thanks for the brilliant post David ! Muito obrigado!

I agree , they are total enigmas and they definitely have the distinction (at least until we know more of their stories) of being the most mysterious gibbons in Brazil (if not Latin America).

How strange that the zoo doesn't make of a big deal about these animals or even have information signs outside their enclosure / island.

It is quite disappointing really and as you have said it doesn't really help matters in terms of the environmental education of visitors at all.

Thank you for trying to find out more about these guys ! Appreciate it and it will be brilliant if the zoo does respond and we can have a bigger picture of what these mysterious guys stories are.

 

I found this recording of a 2018 lecture held at the UNAM university regarding the siamangs at Chapultepec (in Spanish) which goes to explaining the situation with this species at the zoo .

The study was entitled "Behavioral registry as a tool to evaluate the wellbeing of the siamang in the zoo of Chapultepec".

It would appear that there are actually two of these apes that are / were being kept at the zoo. They are a pair: a female named "Geronima" and a male named "Pablo".

The female is apparently very shy and rarely leaves the indoor / night house (Geronima was the solitary animal that was kept for a long time alone in Zacango zoo and as a result presumably developed behavioural problems) but the male is much more outgoing and active in his behaviour.

An interesting talk but slightly disappointing towards the end though because the speaker in response to an audience question reveals that she hasn't researched the history of the species in Mexican zoos thoroughly.

She incorrectly states that the pair at Chapultepec are the only ones in the country and that there has never been breeding success with the species in Mexico either (both erroneous statements).

 

Would you be able to correct this vis a vis contact with Chapultepec zoo and UNAM staff?

 

Sorry Kifaru , I dont understand your question.

When you say "correct" what do you mean ?

Do you mean that the error could be corrected in the text of the youtube video ? or that the zoo or the UNAM should be informed of this error ?

The Chapultepec zoo staff will definitely already know about the history of siamangs in Mexican Zoos. I knew the guy in charge of keeping the records and he was meticulous in maintaining these archives and his breadth of knowledge on species kept by zoos in the country was astounding.

I think that this error in the video is rather a mistake by the individual researcher (who otherwise in my opinion produced some really interesting research on the husbandry of the species at Chapultepec).

Perhaps she just didn't research well enough the history of the species in captivity in the country ? similarly she may have just got understandably nervous when put on the spot with that question and said what came into her head ? (which was unfortunately incorrect).

 

Sorry, for the late reply, I was out for some day.

I meant point out the errors in the researchers' comments vis a vis captive birds.
(You adressed the question already though). Muito obrigado!

 

PS: I do hope they can creat a Mexican zoo based program for siamang. After all, they have 3 facilities with possibilities and potential!

 

I agree , there is definitely some potential there, seeing as there have been international exchanges of siamangs before I don't see why it could be a problem again in the future.

Another thing, I wonder if the Chapultepec male "Pablo" who has now been paired with "Geronima" is the male offspring of Ipoh ?

 

No, I do not think so (but remain unsure given no data or information on their history).

 

Hmmmm interesting... well suppose it is only really the identity and story of this male and the story behind the two siamang in Brazil which is left to discover about these lesser apes in Latin America.

 

There has been at least one single lar gibbon individual kept in Rio. I was looking for some data about the Asian black bears kept at the zoo and I ended up finding a newspaper on a website called Docpro, which said that in 1970, the zoo had bought a female lar gibbon, a female Asian black bear and a king vulture from São Paulo.