Our mangabeys can now be found settling in to their new house – previously home to the chimpanzees.

Visitors to the park have become accustomed to seeing our mangabeys swinging around on their ropes or figuring out how to get their food out of their coconuts next to the to the tiger enclosure. Mangabeys are endangered in the wild and due to hunting and habitat destruction their numbers have been seriously decreasing in the wild. Our mangabeys are part of a strict breeding programme called the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (look out for the EEP sign as you venture around the zoo to see who else is part of this programme). With numbers dwindling in the wild, it is imperative that zoos are breeding up numbers in captivity.

It was this same breeding programme that saw our chimpanzees, Tupolo and Copper, head up north to Blair Drummond Safari Park earlier this year. The chimpanzee enclosure is a fantastic space and it was decided that the mangabeys could go on a bit of a holiday to another part of the zoo. As these monkeys are fascinating to watch, the old chimpanzee house, with its fantastic open windows seemed a perfect place to showcase the mangabeys.

Here in the zoo we have three mangabeys, two females and a male, and they love their new residence. With a large outdoor area to explore, the male is as of yet the only one of the troop that is brave enough to venture outside. The two females are showing more signs of following him out into the open area but for now are really relishing discovering the inner swings, platforms and enrichment put in place by the primate keepers.

If you come to visit us, take the time to watch the mangabeys as they are a delight to watch. Look closely to see if you can spot their novel method of communicating – blinking! Mangabeys have white eyelids and in a dense rainforest it can be difficult to communicate – so what better way to do so by flickering white at each other! Look forward to seeing you all soon.