Trunkline Magazine (Louisville Zoo) December 2018 | Page 4

Building Homes for animals:
Colobus
crossing
By Heather Dishon,
Communications
Coordinator
Brrr! The weather certainly is cold
outside right now. In this season of
mostly gray skies and an abundance
of frosty air, it’s fun to dream of ad-
ventures somewhere far away, isn’t
it? It’s hard to find those kinds of
experiences in wintry Louisville, Ken-
tucky – or perhaps not as difficult as
you imagine!
When you visit the exhibits at the
Zoo, many of the sights and scenes
are inspired by remote areas around
the world. Visiting the Islands will
show you the villages and waterways
of Indonesia. In Gorilla Forest, you
can adventure through the deep,
dark rainforests of the Congo. Last
issue, we shared the latest updates
on Snow Leopard Pass (a new ex-
hibit coming in early spring of 2019)
inspired by the snowy landscapes
and architecture of Tibet. Now, get
excited for Colobus Crossing — this
new exhibit, also opening in early
spring 2019, will whisk you away to
Kenya and introduce you to a few of
its fascinating inhabitants.
If you’re a big fan of primates like
me, you may have spent your sum-
mer wistfully staring past the orange
Colobus monkey
construction barriers and fences near
the African Outpost. You probably
noticed the newly laid concrete,
young trees, sinuous wooden climb-
ing structures and the metal training
platforms of the new primate ex-
hibit, all shaping up on the perimeter
of an expanded Outpost deck.
It wasn’t long ago that two
woolly monkeys, another primate
species, could be spotted climbing
and swinging around the space that
used to be called “Monkey Island.”
When the Zoo’s woolly monkeys
were retired in 2016, it left us with
an important choice – what species
can we help next? Choosing a spe-
cies can be tricky; many things are
taken into consideration. Looking
4 • Louisville Zoo Trunkline • Winter 2018
Schmidt's red-tailed monkey
at the talents and expertise of our
staff, the exhibit space available, our
conservation partners, and the indi-
vidual animals within AZA-accredited
zoos that would benefit from being
moved to a new environment, the
Zoo decided on two species na-
tive to Kenya: black and white
colobus monkeys and Schmidt’s
red-tailed monkeys.
Schmidt’s red-tailed monkeys:
Ahnmom, Chi Chi and Indi
Ahnmom, Chi Chi and Indi will
come to the Louisville Zoo from
ZooTampa in Florida and National
Zoo in Washington. These colorful
arboreal monkeys have white noses,
long red tails and distinctive puffy,
white cheek pouches. As they for-