Primates
The primate house is one of the oldest buildings in the zoo. Despite standard maintenance, the condition of the facility is unfortunately unsustainable and demolition is inevitable.
As this animal house was built in 1966, when the approach to the exhibit design as well as the animals kept was very different and today it no longer meets the strict animal housing standards in modern zoos, there have been efforts over the last 15 years to build new, state-of-the-art breeding and exhibit facilities and gradually relocate the animals as follows:
In 2010, a group of Entellus Langurs to the Chitwan exhibit, which they inhabit together with Asiatic Black Bears;
In 2014, Diana Monkeys and West African Chimpanzees to the House of Evolution developed by rebuilding the former aquatic birds facility;
In 2022, Lion-tailed Macaques to the Wanderu exhibit and Northern White-cheeked Gibbons to the Vadtha ni complex;
Several groups of lemurs to eight islands that have been gradually built on four naturalistic bodies of water, where the primates stay during the warmer months of the year.
The new exhibits enable the animals to take full advantage of the new and spacious naturalistic enclosures that encourage the primates to engage in natural behaviours and activities.
A group of Mandrills still remains at the old house; the animals can now enjoy an outdoor enclosure with artificial trees, but a project is underway to build new indoor spaces for them. The males of these African primates are much more robust and colourful than the females and have large carnivore-like canines, which are used for defence and deterring rivals.
In October 2023, the zoo got a pair of Hamlyn’s Monkeys. Although they have been housed at the old primate house for now, plans are to build a new breeding facility for this species as well. In the wild, the Hamlyn’s Monkey is confined to a very small territory. They are rare even in zoos – only 25 individuals are kept by 10 institutions, mostly in Europe. However, reproduction has been successful in only three of them. Hence the Ostrava animal staff’s intense effort to increase the population in captivity by more offspring being bred and reared.
In addition, the outdated primate facility houses mainly diverse species of lemurs; some stay here permanently, others only in the winter season and are relocated to the island exhibits as soon as possible once the weather becomes warmer.
The house is permanently closed and inaccessible to the public. Animals that have not yet been moved can be seen in the adjacent outdoor exhibits. During the summertime, lemurs can be watched in the walk-through exhibit called Lemur Paradise.