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Zoo News
Zoo Keepers Take Care of Monkey Business
29 July 2008
Primate keepers at Edinburgh Zoo have been taking on extra duties for the last three months as they hand-rear a baby black howler monkey. The monkey, named Diego, is now three months old and is gradually being reintroduced to the Zoo’s group of howler monkeys with full reintroduction expected to be achieved by the end of the year. In the meantime they have been looking after Diego round the clock, including feeds through the night.
Diego was born on 26 April. When he was just a few days old, the keepers arrived in the morning to find that his mother had died but that Diego was still alive. They have been looking after him since that time and he is doing extremely well.
Donald Gow, Senior Keeper for the Primates and Koala Section at Edinburgh Zoo, said:
“Diego has coped really well with losing his mother at such a young age and he is displaying all the normal behaviours we would expect of a baby howler monkey. At the moment, we place him within sight of the other howler monkeys during the day. For the next stage of reintroduction, we are creating a purpose-built cage for him so he can be safely placed into the enclosure. By the end of the year, he will be fully integrated into the group.
As a section, we are very experienced in hand-rearing primates. It is a big commitment but it’s an extremely rewarding experience.”
Notes to Editors:
About Diego
- Diego was born on 26 April 2008. His mother, Molly, had previously reared two other infants. A post-mortem revealed that she had died of heart complications.
- Currently the keepers have to feed Diego seven times in a 24 hour period. He is fed a milk substitute that contains all the nutrition he would normally receive from his mother.
- Howler monkeys would normally leave their mother after 9-12 months which will coincide with the time that he is fully reintroduced back to the group.
- Diego has a cuddly toy that helps to act as a surrogate. He clings to the toy as he would his mother and it allows him to develop natural behaviours such as climbing and gripping.
- He was named ‘Diego’ to reflect the origin of black howler monkeys as they are native to South America.
- The Primate Section has previously hand-reared marmosets and Diana monkeys. In all cases, the infant was successfully reintroduced to their group.
About Black Howler Monkeys
- Black howler monkeys live in the forests of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
- Their name comes from the loud calls they make to alert other monkeys to their territory. The calls can be heard from up to two miles away.
- This species of howler monkey is the largest of the New World monkeys.
- They live in large troops with two or three males and a larger number of females.
- Black howler monkeys normally eat leaves but they also eat fruit.
- All howler monkey offspring are born brown but if the infant is a male, it will gradually turn black.
- The lifespan for this species is normally 16 years but they are under threat in the wild as they are hunted for their meat.
- Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park are owned by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), a registered charity, number SC004064. The Society was set up in 1909 ‘to promote, facilitate and encourage the study of zoology and kindred subjects and to foster and develop amongst the people an interest in and knowledge of animal life’. The Society will celebrate its centenary in 2009.
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