Most people visit our zoo to see our big cats, especially
our beautiful white tigress Zena.
However, once across the threshold they always fall in love with some of
our monkeys and lemurs.
Today I'd like to share some of the work that we do with
our brown capuchin monkeys as part of their care package, which in zoo world is
known as husbandry.
We have a small troop of three males at the Isle of Wight
Zoo - Harley (the largest and alpha male), Timmy and Bailey. Being the alpha male is infinitely tougher in
the wild. They have to protect their family, but mating rights over the females
together with first dibs on food are the perks that go with the job!
Craig has been working with Harley and has trained him to
present his left or right hand, sit, lick finger (Craig's), touch a target,
hold Craig's finger and ring a bell. This is great enrichment for Harley but
also helps Craig to get closer to Harley and identify any possible ailments. This
training will get even better when Harley will do all these things in a large
Perspex box so that we can get an even closer look at him.
A local secondary school had some students that tried
some more enrichment ideas with the little furry primates. One which was very
different was an aural one. A student
had made up a tape of different types of music, which he played to the
capuchins via a tape player outside the enclosure. The plan was to observe the
boys to see how they'd react. Guess what
their favourite music was? Hard rock!!
Hope you enjoy this photo of Harley with his enrichment
box which was filled with goodies which he had to rummage around for!
I'm here every Monday!
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