Greetings Zoochat!

Hello there.

My name is Nicolai and I am a keeper in a tropical house in Denmark.
I graduated the Danish zookeeper course in May 2019 and have since then worked with the Elephant heard of Howletts and at my current job in Jesperhus junglezoo - Log into Facebook | Facebook
During my education I worked at Zoologico Guadalajara in Mexico, Foundation AAP in the Netherlands and Spain, Apenheul in the Netherlands and at a small pet farm in Ireland.

My interests is primates and I am currently responsible for a department holding L. catta, V. variegata and C. goeldii.
I am also quite into communicating to the visitors through videos on social media, videos can be seen on the Facebook page if it has interest, although it is in Danish.

I came upon Zoochat while researching potential new primate species for our tropical house and I am very intrigued by the site. Hope to have many interesting conversations and learning opportunities here.

 

Hey Nicolai, Welcome to Zoochat!

What primate species would you be thinking of: New World, Old World, particular genus or .. other?

 

Thank you!
I was mainly thinking about a couple of specific species (White faced saki, red titi, gray handed night monkeys) but I am all ears of potential solutions.

 

Welcome to ZooChat ! Never been in a Danish zoo althrough I've tried..... My daughter lives in Flensburg in Germany, almost at the Danish border and during a vacation we wanted to visit some Danish collections. We pased the border and because we have a Dutch license plate customs directed used to the first parking place after the border and search our car for the next 2 hours ( even with dog ) !We had to pack all our stuff into the car ourselfs and after this experience my wife had lost the fun to drive further into Danmark... so still no Danish collections for me .
Next time ( when traveling is again allowed ) we will take the car of my daughter ( with German license plates ) and give it another try .
Hope you can keep us informed about whats happening in the Danish zoo-world and enjoy your time at ZooChat !

 

Thanks for the warm welcome!

What a shame with the border-faffing, I have driven quite some times to and from the Netherlands and never had a problem, but probably because of having Danish plates.
Hope you get a chance to come and do a tour of some of our collections, we actually have quite some proper ones, even though we are a small country.

 

Welcome to ZooChat Nicolai!
I look forward to hearing about your experiences in the zoo world!
What is your favorite primate species?

 

Many thanks!

It is difficult for me to choose a set favorite, as there is such a vast difference in working with prosimians to monkeys and apes. Even new and old world is so different. However my love do fall on the apes and if I had to choose - gun to my head - I will have to say chimpanzees.

 

Welcome!

 

Hello Nicolai! What was your most amazing experience with primates?

 

Hello!

Most amazing? Hmm thats difficult.
I did a transport with a group of barbary macaques and that was super interesting. I also saw a bit of a study about facial recognition in bonobos when i were in Apenheul, which was quite cool. Maybe it was the time where i helped with a vet check with rescue chimps. Im not sure but it must be one of these.

 

Welcome to Zoochat! Amazing to have another zookeeper in the site and another Danish member! Hope you find the information you're looking for and that you enjoy!

 

OK, New World primates then. White-faced saki are nice (so, are the less common red-backed bearded saki now present in some collections), Goeldi's monkey, night monkeys Aotus of any description are nice additions too (only not very visible to the general public, but nice for a multi species exhibit / rainforest theme), cotton top tamarin?

Or perhaps, the less common S. leucopus white-footed tamarin, purportedly now available in Europe), pygmy marmoset. Some of the Brasil endemics like the various "golden" monkeys Leonpithecus or the very delicate pied tamarin Saguinus bicolor (very stressed in some primate habitats, and probably not the best species to start working with).

I assume you are not looking at the larger species: capuchin Sapajus, spider monkey Ateles or howler monkey Alouatta?

Just some ideas!

 

Welcome.

 

Welcome to this site @Nicolai Bach Thomas!

 

Welcome!

 

Hey Kifaru.
First of all, thanks a lot for the suggestions!

I haven't necessarily only limited myself to neotropical primates, but I think I might have to, given that my collection is a tropical house with around 50 species in total.
We have Ring tailed lemurs, ruffed lemurs and goeldii's together with quite a lot of birds, reptiles and fish, so I am looking for something that would go into that mix without too much hassle.
I am mostly locked on a saki or titi species but have even thought about talapoins or spot nosed monkeys, but I believe it is a bit too optimistic.
I don't think owl monkeys would fit into the collection and with the goeldii's I am skeptical about getting more callitrichids. Also spider and howlers will not fit in to a tropical house situation like we have, if you ask me.

I really appreciate the ideas you put forward, it made me think in other directions that I already had.

 

I think you will have to stick with the biome, zoogeographical region and the size / dominance and social structure of given species. I would think that tit and white-faced saki are far more acceptable for a restricted habitat than are the talapoin or spot-nosed monkeys (they have a completely different lifestyle too, might conflict with the smaller South American stock you already are exhibiting.

 

Yes. Indeed too optimistic to think in OW monkeys.
I am moving forward with titis for now, to see if that will be a possibility.

 

Welcome to Zoochat!

With Elephants being one of my favourite animals, I would love to know more about your experience working with them. Where you at Blackpool when Emmett arrived. If so, was he observed breeding with the females and are there any pregnancies you might know of?

 

Hi Nicolai, great to have you on zoochat !

I'm curious, what work did you do at Zoologico Guadalajara in Mexico ?