Rare Roloway Monkey Born at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: November 1, 2020 2:50 pm

The roloway monkey infant with its mother

Photo Credit: Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Yorkshire Wildlife Park is celebrating the birth of a roloway monkey. At present the gender of the infant is unknown and it is yet to be named.

This is an extremely rare occurrence with only 3 of these monkeys being born in zoos worldwide this year according to the International Zoo Database.

Dr. Matt Hartley, Head of Animals added “This is a really important moment for the European breeding programme. This baby is so important for the future of the species which faces extinction every day in the wild, due to deforestation and the bush-meat trade.”

Love blossomed between parents Kayla, 4 and Rafiki, 6 who were brought together at the Doncaster wildlife park in February this year. Kayla came from France while Rafiki came from Germany. They are the only roloway monkeys which currently live in the United Kingdom.

‘We have been monitoring Kayla’s pregnancy very carefully ever since we noticed subtle changes in her behaviour’ said Primate Team Leader Greg Clifton.

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The roloway monkey infant with its mother

Photo Credit: Yorkshire Wildlife Park

‘Words cannot express how excited we are to have successful birth here at the Park so soon after Kayla and Rafiki were first introduced and especially as they are both first time parents. They are doing an amazing job. The rangers have been keeping a video diary of the baby day by day and we cannot believe how quickly the youngster has developed. After just a week the baby was already climbing off his mum to explore – under her watchful eye, of course!’

The roloway monkey is naturally found in Ghana and Ivory Coast on the west coast of Africa. They are not adaptable to human disturbances and as such their population is threatened by hunting and habitat loss.

Roloway monkeys live in groups of 15-30 individuals which eat fruits and insects.

Clifton added, “This species is one of the World’s 25 Most Endangered primates, classed as critically endangered. There are only about 200 Roloway monkeys left in the wild and 33 Individuals living in zoos around the world, so they face an uncertain future. Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s efforts to preserve one of the most endangered primate species on our planet, goes beyond Doncaster as thanks to funding from the Yorkshire Wildlife Park Foundation, rangers from the Park will be taking part in a three year project in Ghana to support conservation efforts in the wild for this and other critically endangered African primates.”

Learn more about Yorkshire Wildlife Park on their website – Yorkshire Wildlife Park