These beautiful monkeys can be found high in the canopies of the south American rainforests in large troops of around 40-50 individuals. occasionally they have been found in troops of over 200.

These are very vocal primates and they move nosily through the rainforest making twitters and clucks which disturb small animals and insects on which they feed. They also eat seeds and fruit.

Of the five species of squirrel monkey four species are now listed as threatened.

The Grey-crowned Central American Squirrel monkey is Critically Endangered which means they face a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.

The main threat is deforestation as they cannot live without their trees.

Unfortunately, Rolo and Daisy have not had a very good start to their lives. They were kept as garden pets for over 10 years with inadequate room or diet.

Consequently, we are aware that Daisy has a lame left foot and she is under observation from the vet and Rolo has a repetitive disorder which we are trying to reverse. Hopefully with love and attention we can change them back into monkeys.

Common Marmosets belong to the family Callitrichids, and are known as New World Monkeys.

They communicate with a variety of high pitch calls. The alarm is call is “gee-gee-gee-gee” and their mating call is a short “uistiti-uistiti”.

Most primates have “hands” like us, but marmosets have curved claws, except ion their big toes where they have flat nails.

These claws help them to rip into trees to reach the gum . They also allow them to run up a sheer side of a tree.

Six species of Marmoset are on the Endangered Species list.

Their future is in our hands.

There was great excitement at The Tropical Zoo on the morning of 26 March 2010 when we discovered that Cookie - our Ring Tailed Lemur and her partner Ringo had two little babies overnight. They were pretty lethargic through the day, but we did manage to get them to move around a bit with the enticement of some yummy grapes.

Rescued Lemurs

Like all our animals, Ringo and Cookie were rescued. DEFRA confiscated them after they were found being illegally held as pets in Northern Ireland.

When they had finished their quarantine at Heathrow no one else was interested in providing a home for them.

With the help of local builders merchants - Seccombes, we were able to quickly construct a new home for them. They arrived during Easter 2009.

They have now settled into their new home and are trusting humans again - amazing after how they have been treated in the past!!