Bristol Zoo Gardens celebrates howler monkey birth
Thursday, 2nd April 2009
Keepers at Bristol Zoo Gardens are celebrating the birth of a baby black howler monkey. Despite its name, only males are black while females and juveniles are golden in colour. Young males attain their black colouring upon maturity at around four years old.
Born to parents MacGinty and Amarillo on January 29, 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 two months old, the new arrival is much more alert and visible to Zoo visitors.
The new arrival has this week been sexed as male, and keepers have named him Darwin after the evolutionary biologist whose bicentenary is celebrated this year.
Mel Gage, assistant curator of mammals at Bristol Zoo: “The birth of this baby is great news for Bristol Zoo as well as the UK captive breeding population. The baby is doing very well and is gaining strength. It will suckle from its mother until about eight months old, but it will soon start nibbling bits of solid food too.”
The baby joins a family of four howler monkeys at Bristol Zoo and is the third baby to MacGinty and Amarillo, who 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 programmes for this species.
Black howler monkeys come from the forests of South America. They have loud, howling calls which can be heard up to 5km away.
As with many other species, their habitat is being steadily diminished, and there are now only about 100,000 in the wild.
Find out more about Bristol Zoo Gardens.
