The primates at Taipei Zoo have been attracting attention lately, as the nation enters the year of the monkey, the ningth animal on the 12-animal Chinese zodiac.
There are 25 species of primates at the zoo, with the chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons, Formosan macaques, lemurs, patas monkeys and common squirrel monkeys being must-see species, zoo spokesman Eric Tsao (曹先紹) said.
The Formosan macaque is the only primate endemic to Taiwan, Tsao said. The species lives in groups and follows a matriarchal caste system, under which a group is dominated by an alpha male, dubbed the “King of Monkeys” by Taipei Zoo staff.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The current monkey king in the Formosan macaque group at the zoo has been named by zoo staff “Jung Ko (榮哥),” Tsao said.
As for lemurs, Tsao said there are more than 20 different species, all of which live on Africa’s Madagascar and all of which are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Taipei Zoo is home to three kinds of lemurs — the ring-tailed lemur, the black-and-white ruffed lemur, and the brown lemur, Tsao said.
Another must-see monkey at the zoo is the patas monkey, which are ground-dwellers distributed over semi-arid areas of west and east Africa, Tsao said.
The last on Tsao’s recommendation list is the common squirrel monkey, whose habitat is the rainforests of central and southern America.
Their tails are not prehensile, but provide balance when they move on the treetops, Tsao said.
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