How many species of primate does Twycross Zoo have? Does anyone have an up-to-date list of the primates in their collection? Besides lemurs do they have any other type of prosimians? Do they choose to specialise in some primate taxa? When I last went I remember they had quite a few Cercopithecidae spp. They are several langur species too.
There is a full list of old world primates on the 2014 Challenge thread, 26 i think. There are no prosimians other than lemurs. New World monkeys: 3 species of spider monkey, black howler, white faced saki and about 8 species of marmosets & tamarins. Don't think there are any more. Langurs- Francois, Javan & Dusky.
Zootierliste lists the following species: Ring-tailed lemur, crowned lemur, red-bellied lemur, red ruffed lemur, black-and-white ruffed lemur Black tufted-eared marmoset, white tufted-eared marmoset, Geoffroy's marmoset, silvery marmoset, pygmy marmoset, golden-handed tamarin, bearded emperor tamarin, golden-headed lion tamarin Red titi White-faced saki Black-and-gold howler monkey, Colombian black spider monkey, red-faced black spider monkey De Braza's monkey, Diana monkey, Roloway monkey, Lowe's monkey, black-footed crowned monkey, L'Hoest's monkey, eastern lesser white-nosed monkey, dusky langur, Javan lutong, Francois' leaf monkey, western guereza Pileated gibbon, lar gibbon, northern white-cheeked gibbon, agile gibbon, eastrn Muller's gibbon, siamang Bornean orang-utan, common chimpanzee, bonobo, western lowland gorilla
The Eastern Muellers Gibbon has been PTS! The Roloway Monkey is I believe due to leave for France as soon as the paper work can be sorted!
Lots of primates at Twycross but unfortunately most behind glass, reflective probably, which makes them very difficult to photograph and even at times difficult to see properly.
My estimate on the number of marmoset/ tamarins wasn't bad then, but forgot the red titi. Also the ztl list doesn't include the brown spider monkey?!
Thanks for all the replies. So it seems like they have about 40 species of primate. Have they had more? Ithink they had more at one time. Does Twycross have any plans regarding its primate collection? Will species numbers stay the same or change? Are there plans to make any significant changes to the species held? I'd guess at 40 odd species they've the biggest collection of primate species in the UK. You'd think calling themselves "World Primate Centre" they'd have a greater diversity of primate taxa.
Even when they GAVE themselves the stupid title of World Primate Centre they didn't hold the most different species,in fact during that time they have even turned down 2 species of primate that they have never held because they didn't fit with the zoo's collection plan,from what I have heard I suspect they could lose a few more species because of either old age,or being found new homes as a result of them being on the EAZA surplus list or the studbooks moving the animals to different collections!So the only way I expect the number of primate species to be kept at Twycross is to go down yet further in numbers
If that entails / means some of the species are still of breeding age that they will go to collections with an actual interest to maintain and breed these primates, so much the better. I suppose with the recent and annual evaluation of all EEP / ESB programmes, it will be something of an improvement for the species going out / on surplus list at TWZ. Alas, I still remain at a loss over the lack focus / diversity of Colobinae and Cercopithecinae at Twycross and it seems not about to change for the better!
For me their self-styled title 'World Primate Centre' conjours up visions of a scientific establishment keeping, breeding and scientifically researching a very representative collection of the World's primates- perhaps with some major reintroduction to the wild schemes thrown in too. Twycross fails on most of these counts- its just a top heavy and rather random assortment of Primates in a zoo setting, with several species elderly and/or non-breeding. We know from past research on here that their recent breeding records with many species, the Guenons in particular, have been very,very poor. I could foresee virtually all the remaining Guenons leaving, bar the breeding De Brazza's, which are younger than the rest, having been recently acquired from PL, and no visitors would notice any difference. Similarly with perhaps one of the three species of Langur- I believe the Javans might go(?)- and they could afford to lose a Gibbon species or two. Replacing them with Macaque, Mangabey and Baboon species would improve their overall Primate representation, so more fully justifying that silly title, but I can't really see that happening either.
With regards the bonobo, why are they only found at Twycross? Was a contract/agreement established so that Twycross is the sole holder of the species in the UK? It's always seemed odd to me. There are plenty of places in the UK that could have bonobo, and maybe to a better job with them.
I don't know about a contract as such- maybe it was an agreement of some sort as there has been plenty of movement of Bonobos from Twycross ( it is one of their better breeding successes), but always back to Europe, never to start another UK group. So I suspect they are keen to retain their 'only ones in the UK' tag (for what it is worth, which IMO isn't a lot). That wouldn't stop any other Zoo that seriously wanted some applying to the EEP and perhaps breaking Twycross' monopoly that way. I don't think Twycross could actually prevent another zoo having them, especially if they came from elsewhere, and not from Twycross. And I think the ones at Twycross are EEP owned, and not by Twycross themselves, anyway.
There aren't a lot of bonobo in captivity in the world tbh, Species holding list reports only 174 between 17 zoos in the world - as of the end of 2012 I believe (I got the data from ISIS in May last year so would assume it was for the previous year). Doesn't look like there aren't currently enough to share to another UK collection unless Twycross sent one of their groups elsewhere - but then that lowers the amount of natural breeding that can be done with the 4 males they have/had.
They have come quite a long way since the 1960's though- I can remember when only Frankfurt and Antwerp in Europe had them, and San Diego and Fort Worth in the USA, that was about the total world Zoo population.
There is no contract preventing other UK zoos holding Bonobos or only allowing Twycross to have them. Bonobos are not that common and this is reflected in the captive population held in zoos. Simply, there are not enough bonobos held in captivity for either there to be enough for other UK collections or for other UK collections needing to hold them. Bonobo breeding in captivity has been relatively successful and other UK collections may in the future hold this species.
I agree fully on all counts. My observations where just lamenting the lack of a representative part of the langur or colobus / guenon groups within the TWZ collection and for allowing most of the breeding groups to subside with no apparent attempt at reparations. Your mention of macaque, mangabey and baboon (gelada ..) would be most welcome additions (and you are right … not likely to happen). Despite the recent upgrades on meager funds the World Primate Zoo tag remains a rather inept grand scheme (without a driven executant with a focus on that).
What do you lament about these primate groups? Twycross has species from these groups. Whereas many primate groups are not represented in the "World Primate Centre's" collection.
The diversity in both langur and colobus is massive and the WPZ only presents a meager picture of these (and used to hold a great deal more of unusual and wonderful species within both groups) and it seems never to have made a real effort to be more than consummate on these … explained away by the lack of breeding in most species. But then let's get back to basics …
Yes both these primate groups are diverse. Your latter answer clears up what I didn't understand. I don't know whether they should have more of these primates or whether they should expand to have a better representation of the entire Order. What other species of guenon and langur did they have? If I remember from my last visit (ca. 2005) they had Javan, Phayre's, Spectacled and one other langur. I don't recall them having De Brazza's. They had a few guenons and I think I remember Diana, Lesser Spot-nosed, Lowe's, Red-tailed and Roloways.
