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Mammals
This is probably the most admired and loved family of animals and contains many of our favourite species, including:
PRIMATES
Monkeys and Apes are our closest relatives. The easy way to tell them apart is that monkeys have tails! Some South American (aka New World) Monkeys use their tails as a fifth limb for climbing and balancing.
The smallest monkey in the world is the Pygmy Marmoset; an adult is small enough to curl up in the palm of your hand! We have been breeding these fascinating little monkeys for a number of years and if you watch the adults carefully when you visit you may be lucky enough to see very small babies clinging to their fur!
Increasing in size from the Pygmy Marmosets we have the rest of the Marmoset family, the Tamarins (including the critically endangered Golden Lion Tamarin), the unusual Goeldi's Monkey, our large group of Squirrel Monkeys, the shy nocturnal Douroucouli or Owl Monkey and finally the largest (and loudest) monkey at Amazon World, the Black Howler Monkey.
Lemurs are closely related to Primates and are only found on the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa. All are endangered due to habitat destruction and we have chosen to concentrate on just three species: Ring-tailed Lemurs from the grassland areas of Madagascar and the closely related Red Ruffed and Black and White Ruffed Lemurs from the Rainforest areas.
The Loris family are distant relations of the Primates. These shy nocturnal creatures from Asia spend much of the day curled up motionless in the crook of a tree and when they do become active after dark they hunt insects and search for fruit by slowly creeping along branches. We house both our Slow Loris and Pygmy Slow Loris in 'Reverse lighting enclosures' this means that their night time is actually our day time! As well as enabling us to see them at their most active it allows us to more easily monitor their health and behaviour.
RODENTS
Approximately half of all species of mammal are rodents! Although they are a very successful group of animals they are often killed and eaten by many other animals for food. The largest, the Capybara, is equally at home either in or out of the water, they have webbed feet to aid swimming and at any hint of danger dive into and under the surface of even the fastest flowing river! Mara (or Patagonian Hare) have very long, powerful back legs to allow them to sprint away from danger and Porcupines have found safety in special hairs that grow into spikes forming a defensive coat that keeps even the most determined predator away! We have a very rare and unusual species of Porcupine at Amazon World. The Prehensile-tailed Tree Porcupine has a coat of barbed spines and a very flexible strong tail that it uses to hold on to branches as it climbs around searching for food.
Also in Mammals:
Primates | Rodents | Cats etc | Bats | Tapir & Peccaries | Rare and unusual
Amazon World Zoo Park Watery Lane, Nr Arreton, Isle of Wight PO36 0LX
Tel: 01983 867122 Fax: 01983 868560 Email: info@amazonworld.co.uk