Mainly Miniature Monkeys

MORE FROM CHESTER ZOO

16th July 2013

I went back to Chester Zoo hoping to see the baby Indian rhino, but I had no luck with that.
I was also hoping to photograph the black lion tamarins - I had good views of them indoors on my first visit to the Miniature Monkeys exhibits, but the Eastern pygmy marmosets in the outdoor part of the same enclosure gave me marvellous photo opportunities.

The outdoor enclosures in Miniature Monkeys are completely open and thickly planted with shrubs and mature trees. These are carefully pruned so that the marmosets and tamarins cannot jump over the barriers which have smooth inner surfaces so that they cannot be climbed either. The pygmy marmosets are the smallest monkeys, they are cryptically coloured and they creep around the enclosure - quite different from the agility and dash of the other species of marmosets and tamarins. This makes them hard to see and they also spend a lot of time looking around as if they are checking for predators. Several years ago I watched a kestrel eating a mouse in an oak tree in Miniature Monkeys, it then flew across the path and inspected the floor of the other enclosure obviously looking for another rodent. This happened before the pygmy marmosets arrived, but I have no doubt that a kestrel would be capable of catching an unwary pygmy marmoset - so it is as well that this species is so cautious.
The individual above was sitting quietly in a patch of sunlight at the top of a shrub: a perfect pose for my 500 mm. A different one gave me a sequence as it crept along a dead branch, it then moved across to live branch and started to bite the bark to feed on the sap, which is part of the natural diet of marmosets. You can see more bite marks on this branch.

There was also plenty of action at the giant otter's pool. You can see that the two cubs are still significantly smaller than the adults when they are all out of the water; but in the water it's much harder to tell. I think this shot shows the two cubs in front of their mother 'Icana'. I love the water lilies in their pool, they look very attractive and the otters seem to like them too.

In Realm of the Red Ape, the light was very good in the aviary of the Timor sparrows and scissor-billed starlings, but this male splendid fruit dove hogged the spotlight. I used my 105mm macro lens for this image (and for the photos below too).












Back at Miniature Monkeys, I finally managed a nice shot of a black lion tamarin (or golden-rumped lion tamarin if you prefer). This pair are the only specimens in mainland UK and although I am glad to see them on show, I am also disappointed because they been kept off-show at Chester for a couple of years in the hope that privacy would let them breed. Their move to Miniature Monkeys is a sign that the zoo has virtually given up hope of success. I have written before about this species; it is the most sensitive and delicate of the three species of lion tamarins in zoos, although this pair seemed to have taken their move well. I am afraid that in few years time they may have disappeared from zoos in Britain and perhaps in Europe too.
I am told that these animals are now using the outdoor enclosure too, so I will try to take more photos of them soon.
Finally a photo of black rhino calf 'Embu' at two and a half weeks old, with his mother 'Zuri'. They were out in the paddock, but the grass was too long for decent photos of the little guy. I took this one as the keepers enticed 'Zuri' back into the yard with some pellets before taking them in for the night. The background is pretty horrible, but it shows how much the calf had grown since my previous visit.