Chimelong breeds the world's largest population of monkeys

On December 1, Chimelong Safari Park launched the 2021 Monkey Special Exhibition series of activities. This monkey special exhibition is themed "Ape Universe" and will exhibit many rare monkeys including golden monkeys, proboscis monkeys, and colorful leaf monkeys (black-legged white-buttocked leaf monkeys). At that time, there will be about 120 monkey families in Chimelong to meet tourists. Chimelong currently conserves 58 species of primates, the largest conservation base in the world. On the first day of the event, the Peruvian night monkey (Aotus nancymaae) family and the newborn four-month-old Brazilian night monkey baby "Yuzu" ushered in the first exhibition. In the night environment exhibition area, five little night monkeys hid on the high branches and watched the tourists outside. When there was any movement, the little monkeys raised their heads and looked around with curious eyes.

Big-eyed night monkeys welcome first exhibition

The night monkeys are so named because they have a different schedule from other monkeys. They are active at night and make loud calls. They go up trees to rest in the early morning, so they are called "the noisy night monkey" in English. The night monkeys' iconic big eyes also have a great origin. According to the keepers of Chimelong, the night monkeys have the largest eyes in terms of body weight among primates. They have strong light-gathering ability and excellent vision at night, which enables them to shuttle through the dark woods, find insects flying in front of them in the dark, and catch them immediately.

According to Chen Siming, a conservation expert at Chimelong, night monkeys have developed such a unique routine in order to compete for dwindling resources, which is a characteristic formed during evolution.

Night monkeys are mainly distributed in the tropical rain forests of Amazon, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil in Latin America. Since 2015, Chimelong Group has been researching and breeding Brazilian night monkeys and Peruvian night monkeys. Currently, there are 77 Brazilian night monkeys and Peruvian night monkeys in total, with more than 30 new births, and has accumulated rich experience.

The above achievements are inseparable from the research and practice of Chimelong Primate Research Center in child rearing, conservation and health management over the years, such as preparing exclusive milk powder for the newborn Brazilian night monkey baby "Yuzu", strictly disinfecting to control food safety, regularly rotating menus to promote nutritional balance, accurately setting environmental temperature and humidity parameters, etc., so that the night monkey family from afar can settle down happily in Chimelong. In addition, in order to allow tourists to see the true appearance of night monkeys and conform to the work and rest of night monkeys, Chimelong Safari Park specially adjusted the environment of the exhibition hall during the day, and restored their low-brightness cold light environment in the wild as much as possible through light shielding arrangements.

The world's largest collection of monkeys

Monkeys are not only the most popular animals in the zoo, but also the animal group that is closest to humans in nature. The Chimelong Monkey Exhibition exhibited the Internet celebrity family of the critically endangered orangutan, the "Mao" family, with eight, nine, and ten orangutans appearing one after another. The Chimelong "Mao" orangutan family, which has appeared on satellite TV variety shows, now has three generations living together. This year, a new baby, Thirteen Mao, was born, which once again expanded the "Mao" family.

The monkeys in the monkey exhibition have their own characteristics. There is the lion tamarin, which looks like a lion but is only one percent of the weight of a lion. It is covered with brown hair, agile, and jumps up and down in the forest. There is also the cotton-top tamarin, which has white hair on its head and looks like a tribal chief. They have a higher probability of giving birth to twins.

In the years of conservation and scientific research, Chimelong Primate Research Center has mastered the core technologies of various monkey conservation from Central and South America, Africa and Asia, and has successfully bred proboscis monkeys, black-and-white collared lemur triplets, cotton-top tamarin triplets and black leaf monkey twins, forming a stable breeding population of endangered species such as lemurs and great apes, breaking through the technical difficulties of artificial breeding of golden monkeys, marmosets, gibbons, and colorful leaf monkeys (black-legged white-rumped leaf monkeys), establishing a primate disease prevention and treatment system, improving the breeding and health level of primates, and the number of species populations has expanded year by year. Chimelong has also made many beneficial attempts in the research and practice of animal enrichment, allowing animals to "return" to nature, providing a suitable environment for social animals, maintaining the nature and natural behavior of animals, and promoting the harmonious growth of various animals.