There will be a lot more monkeying around at Hogle Zoo - now that the zoo has opened its newest exhibit, Primate Forest.
The first of three phases of the display, featuring one male and three female colobus monkeys, opened Thursday evening for viewing by Utah Zoological Society members.Other zoo visitors got a chance beginning Friday to view the monkeys, the first such species to be displayed at the zoo since 1990.
Located southeast of what is known as Monkey Island, one the oldest exhibits at the zoo, Primate Forest is an outdoor display for one male and three female colobus monkeys.
The 2,300-square-foot display features lush vegetation, rocks, a recirculating waterfall and pool covered by a canopy of light, airline cable netting.
Colobus (prounounced kol-o-bus) monkeys are "not acclimated to people, but they are fun to watch. They are easy going, very docile and very attractive animals. Their coloration and long, flowing hair is what makes them so attractive. They look like they just came out of a beauty parlor," said the zoo's general curator, Kimberly Davidson.
Visitors have an almost unobstructed view of the monkeys as they climb and romp about the exhibit. The monkeys, which were transferred last month to Hogle Zoo from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, have a heavy, black body and long white hair on their shoulders and down their back. A long white tuft of hair is at the tip of their tail. The monkeys are native to an area extending from Tanzania to Nigeria in equatorial Africa.
Feeding stations, elaborately hidden through the display, provide environmental enrichment and activities to stimulate the animals' natural instinct to climb, eat and browse, said Andrew Wallace, zoo marketing and development di rector.
The exhibit is adjacent to the zoo's Auditorium Building that houses the indoor enclosures for the colobus monkeys.
The cost to renovate inside, nighttime quarters for the monkeys and to build the first phase of the display was approximately $250,000. It was raised through zoo admission revenue and funds collected in a capital campaign. The total cost of building the three phases will be approximately $1.8 million, Wallace said.
Mark B. Garff Construction Co., which has constructed a number of facilities at the zoo, built Phase 1. The zoo is awaiting the return of bids on Phase 2, an indoor winter viewing area for primates and a large outdoor exhibit. Work is expected to begin this fall and be completed next spring. That phase will replace Monkey Island. Work will then begin on Phase 3, now located at zoo's existing raccoon exhibit, located west of the island.