Posts Tagged ‘tamarin’

May
18

Monkeys Go Wild (Haired) for Conservation!

Posted by in Conservation,Natural Encounters

By Natural Encounters keepers Corri Osborne and Rachel Godambe

 

For guests visiting the Indoor Rainforest exhibit in the Carruth Natural Encounters building, a little monkey awaits with a big surprise!

Normally, visitors are quick to comment on the flashy appearance of the bright orange Golden Lion Tamarins seen in the Indoor and Outdoor Rainforest exhibits. Right now, however, all eyes are on the Cotton Top Tamarins.  These monkeys are known for their shock of white head hair and their brown and white coloring.  That all changed for our two monkeys in preparation for our celebration of Proyecto Titi, one of the conservation organizations that is featured in the recently released book Wildlife Heroes.

 

Natural Encounters zookeeper Rachel Godambe worked with the pair to dye their hair bright blue in support of the wild Cotton Top Tamarins of Colombia, who are studied by Proyecto Titi scientists and are fitted with radio trackers and dyed in color patterns to make identifying individual monkeys at great distances a slightly easier process.  This weekend, keeper chats at the Indoor Rainforest will highlight the conservation work done by Proyecto Titi to save these tiny endangered monkeys.  Guests will be able to spot our brightly colored monkeys and learn more about what native Colombians are doing to celebrate Cotton Tops and protect them and their rainforest habitat.

 

 

On Sunday, author Jeff Flocken will be at the Houston Zoo to sign copies of his book Wildlife Heroes, available for purchase at the zoo, and to share his wonderful stories about Cotton Top Tamarins and Proyecto Titi.  Please stop by on either Saturday or Sunday to see our information display and learn more!

 

Check out Rachel’s answers to some monkey related questions below:

 

Fun Facts about our Cotton Top Tamarins:

 

  • Cotton Top Tamarins vocalize to each other with a variety of high pitched squeaks that sound a lot like bird calls.
  • Cotton Top Tamarins tails are long but they are not prehensile. They use their tails for balance as they run and leap through branches.
  • Cotton Top Tamarins are social animals and live in groups of 2 to 12 individuals in the wild.

 

How long have you been a CTT trainer?

I have been training Mikey and Minnie the Cotton Top Tamarins at Natural Encounters for 8 months now.

 

Is this the strangest behavior you’ve trained the monkeys?

If you told me I will end up dying monkeys’ hair I wouldn’t believe it in a million years!

 

What makes working with Cotton Top Tamarins so rewarding?

These guys have interesting personalities which makes training them so fun and rewarding.

 

You had great success in dying the CTT hair bright blue.  What was the process?  What was your biggest challenge?  How long from start to finish did this take? 

It took a month to accomplish this goal of dying their hair blue for the conservation event. I had in mind applying the dye with a syringe. They are used to the presence of the syringe for oral medication and associate it with treats, so they were quite comfortable with this process. I used the syringe with water and had them touch a target, which is one of their long established training behaviors. The syringe was presented above their heads and a reward was given. I did this for a few days and once they were accustomed to it I dripped some water on them from the syringe and rewarded them with a big jackpot (lots of verbal goods, wax worms, currents, and yogurt tossed at them) and they did not mind at all. We did these sessions a couple of times a week up to a few days before the event. It was now time to introduce the dye (nontoxic food coloring) and this is where I was faced with a challenge, the dye would not apply properly to the hair. It was suggested that we use a small paint brush. These guys have never seen a paintbrush in their lives and to have it rubbed on their heads could be very scary for them. After practice sessions of presenting the paintbrush with the dye on it and moving it around them with lots of treats it became a positive item to them. Eventually, they let me apply the dye with a paintbrush on their crazy white hair. Now you can see them rock their blue hair in the Natural Encounters Rainforest for conservation!

 

The biggest challenge was Mikey would only let me do a few strands at a time because he would run to the window and stare at his reflection. We had to wait for him to stop looking at himself, then he would come back and let us do some more. It was a time consuming process, but I think he just wanted to make sure it looked good. = )

Tags: , , , ,
Jun
20

In Appreciation of Dads

Posted by in Animal Info,Primates

In honor of Father’s Day, I thought I’d take a break from writing about African Forest construction for a tribute to dads, particularly those of the animal kingdom. At first glance, many people think of animal dads as not so important – don’t they all just run around fighting over territory and trying to have as many kids as possible? As usual for the animal kingdom, these things are never as simple as producers of 30 minute documentaries would like you to believe.

Let’s start with tamarins and marmosets, small monkeys native to South America. Tamarins live in family groups made up of a pair and their young offspring. Every year the female gives birth to twins, which is quite rare among primates. These kids can weigh up to 10% of her body weight and they have to be carried 24 hours a day. You don’t have to be a primatologist to see what a burden this could be. Lucky for her though, the male steps in almost immediately to help. He carries the infants around most of the time (sharing with the older siblings if there are any) so that all the female has to do is feed them. This is not just helpful, it’s essential – those babies won’t survive without his help.

photo by Houston Zoo Natural Encounters Staff

One of my favorite animal dad stories is an exception to the rule. We have a family of orangutans here at the zoo that many you know – mom Kelly, dad Doc, and their son Solaris, who reside at Wortham World of Primates. Orangutans are also a bit unusual among primates because they are semi-solitary – this means they spend most of their time alone, rather than in large groups like gorillas and chimpanzees. In fact, adult male and females only meet every 8 or so years to breed! Kids stay with their mothers for 8 years or more and are totally dependent on her to learn how to survive and this is the only real orangutan social group.

Here at the zoo we try to manage our orangutans similar to how they would live in the wild – we let them spend time alone and some time together. Doc and Kelly are a compatible pair and often go outside together during the day. As soon as Solaris was old enough to move around on his own, he was fascinated with Doc. Kelly, however, instinctively protected Solaris and would not allow him to approach Doc. For months we watched Solaris try to sneak off to see Doc and then Kelly would drag him back to “safety.” All the while Doc just sat there, with the look of indifference that only a male orangutan can master. But Solaris was determined, and one day Kelly gave in. The result was one of the most endearing scenes of my career – a 300+ pound dad playing with his tiny son.

photo by Houston Zoo Primate Staff

One could argue that male orangutans have no paternal instincts and in the wild, these two would have probably never met. But here at the zoo father and son were lucky enough to find each other and contradict much of what we thought we knew about animal behavior. I love it when they teach us something we thought we already knew.

I was lucky to spend last week with my dad, who I don’t get to see often enough because this job that I love so much has also taken me far from home. If you’re lucky enough to spend today with your dad, make the most of it (shameless plug here – why not take him to the zoo!). And if you’re not one of those lucky ones then take a minute to appreciate the good fathers you know – both the human and non-human varieties.

Tags: , , , ,