Fota Wildlife Park today announced the arrival of a pair of Drill monkeys as part of an international co-operative breeding programme.
The animals, who are closely related to mandrills and baboons, came from Stuttgart Zoo in Germany in February 2019.
The 22-year-old male Julian and the 28-year-old female Buddy have been settling in extremely well, Fota said.
They are being kept in a new purpose-built 'Drill-house' - a brand new viewing structure which has just been opened to the public at Fota Wildlife Park.
Drills are large animals, with the males weighing around 33kgs. They are powerfully built with large canine teeth and feature a range of colours such as lilac, blue, pink and purple on their rumps.
Drills are among Africa’s most endangered mammals and are listed by the IUCN as the highest conservation priority of all African primates. They are found only in the wild in Cross River State, Nigeria, southwestern Cameroon and on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. Their entire world range is less than 40,000 km squared, equivalent to half the size of the island of Ireland.
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Lead Ranger Teresa Power said: "Currently this stunning looking pair of Drills are adapting really well, and their transfer and arrival couldn’t have gone any better really.
"The house here has been specially designed for this species with the heating set at a temperature of 20 degrees.
"We are refurbishing their island where they will have outdoor access to one of the largest Islands in Fota with trees and climbing platforms.
"They will be joined soon by three females from Bristol Zoo and we hope to integrate them all into one breeding group.
"As Buddy was hand reared, she carries her teddy bear with her for comfort and our Rangers are working to develop a special bond with her to make her feel at home.
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"This is the first time we have kept this species here at Fota, indeed it’s a first for any zoo in Ireland and the captive population worldwide currently stands at only 76 individuals so we’re hoping to highlight the important work by wildlife parks and zoos in preventing this unique primate from becoming extinct."
Fota Wildlife Park has, as part of an upcoming Virgin Media Television documentary series, been filmed carrying out several recent transfers including the Drills from Stuttgart, red pandas to Longleat and Dharma the young Sumatran tiger who was born at Fota to Edinburgh Zoo.
These moves are recommended transfers between zoos as part of the European Zoo Association co-operative breeding programmes.
Fota said it is hoped that the new group of Drill will have offspring in the near future.
For more information go to www.fotawildlife.ie.
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