Zoo’s Baby Boom
A baby black howler monkey - one of the zoo's new arrivals. (Photo by Peter Budd.)
At just eight weeks old, the zoo’s two young meekats have only recently started venturing out of their heated house to play, forage and dig in the sand for grubs. The tiny newcomers weighed around just 30g at birth and are being well looked after by the adult meerkats, which take turns minding the babies.
Keepers are also celebrating the birth of a baby black howler monkey in the Zoo’s Monkey Jungle. Born to parents MacGinty and Amerello on February 18, the youngster weighed around just 250g (little over half a pound) at birth.
Newborns cling tightly to their mother’s long hair and can be difficult to see. Now five weeks old, the new arrival is becoming more alert and visible to zoo visitors.
Despite their name, only the male black howler is black, the female and babies are blonde in colour. The youngster joins the family of four howler monkeys at Bristol Zoo and MacGinty and Amerello are proving to be very attentive parents.
Black howler monkeys are part of a European breeding programme for which Bristol Zoo Gardens holds the European studbook. This means Bristol Zoo is responsible for the European population management programme for this species.
Meanwhile, over on one of the zoo’s lake islands, an unusual species of monkey is finding its feet. The young white-faced saki monkey was born earlier this month and, at just three weeks old, still clings onto its mother’s back. The infant can be tricky to spot as it hides in its mother’s long grey/brown hair. Saki monkeys are shy and private creatures and keep their babies close when they are small.
The saki baby has not yet been named because it is still too young to be sexed. It joins four other saki monkeys at home on one of the zoo’s lake islands – mum Zebedee, dad Rio, and two siblings.
The monkey’s parents are easily distinguishable as adult male sakis are black with a striking white face, while the females are grey/brown and have a narrow white stripe on their face between the inner eye and mouth.
White-faced saki monkeys live in trees and are fast moving, leaping and jumping up to ten metres at a time. For this reason, people in their native South America call them 'flying monkeys'.
In Twilight World, a nocturnal species of monkey, called an owl monkey, has been born. The six week old youngster is still tiny and is carried around on its parents’ backs, where it lives along with one other young owl monkey, and two sloths.
Owl monkeys, which are also called douroucoulis, sleep during the day and are active at night – and can be seen in the Zoo’s nocturnal house. They have extremely large eyes, which give them excellent night vision.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
