výroční zpráva 2009 ( 4,12 MB ) - Zoo Ostrava

Keeping a new primate species at Ostrava ZooKarin TančibokováSince the mid-year 2008, building alterations in the entrance part of the parrot house commenced toprovide for a new exhibit named “Little Amazonia”. The rebuilding process cost the zoo 1.9 million CZK, with1.5 million extended by OKD Foundation and the remainder co-funded from the allocation of the StatutoryCity of Ostrava. Formally opened on 18 April, this exhibit became home to new dwellers, including primatesthat were never held in Ostrava before.The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), a critically endangered member of the callitrichid family,primates that feature nails converted into little claws on each of the digits except the big toes. Their ratherlong body, limbs and tail as well as their claws make callitrichids very well adapted for climbing thick treetrunks. The cotton-top tamarin measures 210-250 cm and its weight ranges from 400 to 500 g. The back isbrown with light marble pattern, while the underparts including limbs are white. They feature heavy-lookingwhite hairs on their nape, so are sometimes dubbed Liszt monkeys as they are said to resemble the famouscomposer. Pregnancy takes 140 days; the female will mostly bear twins or even triplets, but the latter is rare.Tamarins live in small family clans, with both parents caring for the infants. The young ones are carried by themale and older siblings on their back and delivered to the female only for feeding. This tamarin can live forup to 15 years. The cotton-top tamarin is a diurnal creature that will spend most of its time in trees, searchingfor food almost all day long, feeding on fruits, young leaves and buds, but also insects and nectar. Whenthreatened, the tamarin will stand up on its hind limbs, erecting the prolonged hairs on the nape. Whenvocalising, cotton-top tamarin's voice sounds like bird singing.At the moment, there are more cotton-top tamarins in zoos and private holders than in the wild, whichprobably is due to the use of this primate in pharmacy throughout Europe, being the reason for their imports.The species' range is limited only to northern Columbia, a region where biodiversity is relatively high, butconservation rather poor, with converting forests into the farming land and development of water powerplants posing the main threats not only to tamarins.For the new exhibit, a family group was imported to the zoo from Dresden, which involved a breeding pairand four juveniles. In the latter half of May, the female Isabel gave birth to twins. The family was really a goodexample of a breeding group. In September 2009, the young but already sexually mature males tried to chasethe dominant male Leopold away from the group, with Isabel eventually joining these efforts. Three youngmales had to be separated from the group and placed behind the scenes. Leopold was separated as well dueto its injuries, with subsequent treatment lasting one month; then this animal could be reunited with thegroup.Attractiveness is added to the Little Amazonia through several components, like the vivarium containingtiny frog species - the three-striped poison frog (Ameerega trivittata) and the golden poison frog (Phyllobatesterribilis), the naturalistic display showing peculiar invertebrates - death's head cockroaches (Blaberuscraniifer) and the white-banded tarantula (Acanthoscurria geniculata), and the artificial waterfall witha water tank for freshwater creatures, with the ocellate river stingray (Potamotrygon motoro) - the firstmember of cartilaginous fishes at Ostrava Zoo, black band myleus or disk tetra (Myleus schomburgkii) andbanded leporinus (Leporinus fasciatus) being certainly the worth-mentioning species.43