Experience life in the trees at the Helen Brach Primate House where groups of gibbons, tamarins and exotic lemurs make their home in an indoor rain forest.

Opened in 1927, the historic Primate House was once lined with small sterile cages typical of the early zoos. For more than 40 years this building also was home to a succession of the zoo's gorilla patriarchs including Bushman, Sinbad and Otto, all local celebrities in their time. A two-year renovation completely transformed the old Primate House into eight new naturalistic exhibits, replicating the native habitats of the primates who make their home at Lincoln Park Zoo.

From the tiny emperor tamarins to the largest monkeys in the world, mandrills, primates share many traits, including their most effective tool for survival, a large brain. Remarkably agile as they swing from branch to branch, primates are designed for their life in the forest. In fact, humans are the only primates who have completely left the trees.

Long arms and a flexible skeleton make hand-over-hand travel, called brachiation, an efficient and speedy way for most primates to get around, swinging through the forest at up to 30 miles per hour. Refined hands and feet with nails rather than claws help monkeys make a quick grab for treetop branches. Like humans, many monkeys live in family groups and share not only social activities like eating and grooming, they also cooperate with duties including child care and protecting other members of the troop.

 
 Howler monkeys, named for their booming calls, can be heard miles away, emitting bellowing yowls that are often mistaken for thunder. These noisy monkeys use their calls to locate each other, to claim and protect their territory or to sound an alarm to the rest of their troop. Like many of the animals in the Primate House, black howler monkeys are native to tropical forests of South America where their diet of leaves, shoots and insects is abundant year-round.

Sporting a glossy black coat with a white mantle over its side and back and white rimming its face, black and white colobus monkeys spend most of their time in the highest branches of the forest. Subsisting on a diet heavy on leaves, these monkeys have a unique three-part stomach that allows them to digest their fibrous diet. Native to tropical forests and mountains of west central and east Africa, these monkeys live in groups of three to 15.

Tops in aerial acrobatics, white-cheeked gibbons (pictured at right==>)speed through the forest canopy, clearing 45-foot spans in a single swing. Male and female gibbons are easily identifiable as males are black with lighter cheeks and females are blonde, sometimes with dark patches. Gibbons also add to the music of the trees with a haunting duet of calls between the male and female, sung to claim their territory. Confrontations at territorial boundaries are a frequent part of life for these endangered primates native to tropical rainforests of southeast Asia and Indonesia.

Not all of the forest dwellers spend their time in the trees. Mandrills, an Old World monkey, roam the ground on all fours. Troops of mandrills are adept at fighting off predators and protecting their own. At night, they do take refuge in the trees, resting comfortably on their tough rump pads. These endangered primates are native to the forests of west central Africa . Mandrills born at Lincoln Park Zoo have been placed in breeding groups at zoo across the country.

Species Data Sheets:

Tropical rainforests are disapearing at an alarming rate. Local industries like timber production, agriculture and mining are destroying the homes of forest-dwelling primates and other animals. In fact, many populations are dwindling so fast it may not be long before they are found only in isolated reserves, if at all.

More than 100 tropical species of monkeys are endangered or threatened. Captive breeding and support from zoos provide some hope, but are futile if the animals' native habitat is completely destroyed. Research and conseravtion help in their native homes provide more hope. lincoln Park Zoo participates in a global conservation program for howler monkeys and has provided funding to help support a protected reserve for howlers in the wilds of Belize.

Ongoing research on emperor tamarin behavior here at the zoo supports these endangered primates. Zoo-sponsored fellowships have increased our knowledge of gibbons, lemurs and mandrills.

Beyond research and conservation dollars, Lincoln Park Zoo is working to teach the importance of preserving the earth's wild places and the animals that inhabit them. With the spread of this message is the hope that primates will be swinging through the trees of many tropical forests for generations to come.

Top and bottom photos © Greg Neise

Middle photo © Thor Janson