Some of San Antonio’s furriest residents just got new digs.
Five tamarins at the San Antonio Zoo moved into a larger, open air habitat. That means the zoo’s era of primates in cages is officially over.
“Providing the animals in our care with enriching, natural habitats is at the heart of everything we do,” said Tim Morrow, the San Antonio Zoo’s president and CEO. “With this new tamarin space, we’re not only improving the habitat for the cotton-top tamarins but continuing our focus on animal wellbeing, habitat design innovation, and modernization.”
It’s the culmination of a multiyear effort to move monkeys, apes and other primates from cages to better habitats. That included closing the Monkey House in 2018.
“Today, reaching fully cageless primate habitats reflects years of progress and a deep dedication to giving every animal the best home possible,” Morrow added.
The new enclosure for the zoo’s cotton-top tamarins will be 180% larger, according to a San Antonio Zoo press release, and have more opportunities for foraging, movement and social interaction.
Cotton-top tamarins are a critically endangered species from South America that spend most of their lives in forest canopies, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. There are roughly 6,000 of the monkeys left in the wild.
Four females and one male cotton-top tamarin live at the San Antonio Zoo.
The tamarins are not the only primates to get a new home at the zoo. Seven very distant cousins had Congo Falls — the new gorilla habitat — open last year.
