2019’s newest arrivals… from arachnids to primates!

2019 is off to a busy start for everyone at Marwell, including the animal keepers!

A tiny white-faced saki monkey infant…

The last arrival for 2018 (and the perfect way to end a wonderful year) was a new white-faced saki money infant. The little one is the third infant for parents Twenke and Manja and is settling in well with brothers Denny and Diego. Keepers are waiting until they can sex the tiny monkey before giving him or her a name. So keep your eyes peeled for updates from Life Among the Trees!

A white-naped pheasant pigeon 

From a different exhibit we have another new arrival, a male white-naped pheasant pigeon, who has arrived in Tropical House! The new bird is a male named Pipi (creatively derived from PP aka. pheasant pigeon). He arrived from Chester Zoo, and has joined our female in Tropical House. While the male and female look identical, the keepers can tell the pair apart by their identity bands and their behaviour. This species have also been seen ‘displaying’ to each other by bobbing their tails and keepers have heard them calling for each other, so listen out for the white-naped pigeon calls next time you’re in Tropical House!

Golden orb spiders

We have also welcomed six female golden orb spiders (Nephila edulis) from ZSL London Zoo! This species are from Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and New Caledonia and the name ‘golden’ actually comes from the colour of their web rather than the spider itself – in certain lights the silk shines like gold. The females have now settled in and can be spotted in their rather impressive webs. Keepers hope to introduce males at a later date, but for now they are a non-breeding group. You can spot these unique spiders in our Tropical House alongside our crocodile monitor lizard, Dali.

Goodbye to Darwin and the ring-tailed coatis

With all these wonderful new arrivals, we have also had a couple of departures. Our 9-year-old male Bactrian camel, Darwin, has left Marwell Zoo to join Leo Wild Park in Italy. He moved to the new collection on 29 November 2018 and his new keepers have said he is settling in really well with his new herd! Since then our group of ring-tailed coatis have also left the collection and moved to Jimmy’s Farm on 18 December 2018.