New Monkeys Are United in Love at Fota Wildlife Park

New Monkeys Are United in Love at Fota Wildlife Park after Volcano Delay

Fota Wildlife Park has finally introduced the latest additions to the park a male and female Black Howler Monkey to another, after a delay caused by the volcanic ash.

Pedro was the first of the howler monkeys to arrive in the park back on the 3^rd of March from Paris Zoo but had to wait until last weekend to meet his new love interest Mo from Banham Zoo in Norfolk. Mo was due to arrive at the park on the 20^th of April via Heathrow but like many others had to go back home when flights were cancelled by the volcanic ash disruption.

Speaking about the new arrivals at the park operations manager Tony O’Dwyer added “they are getting on very well despite the delay and are having great fun in their new island residence”. The Black Howler Monkeys are the first new species to arrive at Fota in 2010 and can be seen opposite the penguins in the park. The Black Howler Monkey is one of six species of Howler Monkey, who can be found in central South American bush savannah, deciduous and semi-deciduous forests. The male is black, while the female is brown or gold.

Howler monkeys are renowned for their highly specialised voice box that can project their howls for 2km or further. As a result the park may now have a singing contest on their hands as some of their existing residents have a reputation for making lots of noise in particular the Siamang Gibbon. It is hoped however that the monkeys don’t howl too much at night and disturb the baby zebra who has proven to be very popular with the public following a competition to name her. “We have had a huge response to our zebra naming competition with hundreds of people entering, in the end we narrowed it down to three and our Facebook Fans chose Aifric” added Stephen Ryan, Head of Marketing for the park.

The park have also announced details of its upcoming cheetah run 4 mile road race  in association with Eagle AC on the 20^th of May. The race is the only one of its kind to go through a wildlife park or zoo in Ireland and some of the money raised on the night will go towards renovations of the Lar gibbon island at the park.

Notes About Howlers:

• Central and South American monkeys are classified as New World monkeys, and have side-facing nostrils and no pads on their rumps.  Like Spider Monkeys they also have long prehensile tails that can grasp branches and food.  The lower end of the tail tip does not have any hair, and this aids grip and sensitivity.

• Baby Howler Monkeys are born with brown fur, changing to a dark colour as they grow if they are male.

• Howlers have large molar teeth and can eat mature leaves as well as softer, more digestible young leaves. This ability has undoubtedly contributed to their wide distribution and the wide variety of vegetation types in which they live.

• Because of their leaf-eating diet, they spend up to 70% of their day digesting their food, usually lying and sitting quietly in the tree branches.

• When a baby Howler Monkey is born it may be looked after by several different females, a phenomenon known as ‘Allmothering’.

• The Cheetah Run, organised by Eagle AC, in conjunction with Fota Wildlife Park, will take place at 8pm on Thursday May 20th 2010. This race attracted 662 runners in 2009 and it should again prove an attractive event.
• Fota Wildlife Park is the biggest Wildlife Park on Facebook with nearly 5,000 fans