Ra****s rehoused at Noah's Ark zoo farm near Nailsea

Images courtesy of Dave Sullivan, of Animal Images

By Carol_Deacon | Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 09:55

Tomorrow is moving day for a small group of inquisitive South American coatis who live at Noah’s Ark zoo farm, near Nailsea.

The zoo at Wraxall it making room for some new arrivals so the ground-foraging relatives of the racoons are being given a purpose-built new home.

Three brown-nosed coatis which are small furry mammals who use their snouts to root around on the ground for insects, fruit and nuts, are being built a special new enclosure in the South American section of the zoo.

This is to make room for new primates which are arriving soon.

After five years in their previous accommodation, the coatis will now be able to use a large new climbing structure, reaching 25ft high and consisting of many aerial walkways, poles and ropes to encourage their natural climbing behaviour.

The quarter of an acre will give ample room for foraging and making use of their high energy levels through lots of activity for the boisterous male and two females.

The space will be in separate halves for the two sexes to best ensure the females are protected from unwanted advances when not ready to breed.

With a small initial population of coatis, provisions have been made for any future arrivals with new, large, purpose-built houses designed to hold the females together in an aerial nest and giving the males a ground-based separate ‘bungalow’ of their own.

This is to give new mothers the privacy and security they need, whilst allowing the males to carry on with their normal behaviours of foraging and interacting.

Noah’s Ark is open Monday-Saturday 10.30am-5pm.

There are now more than 100 sorts of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates at Noah’s Ark, including several important species classified as ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN red list.

These include cotton topped tamarins (critically endangered), white rhinos (near threatened), Brazilian tapirs (vulnerable) and Siamang gibbons (endangered).

The brown-nosed or South American coati (is a diurnal mammal found in most of the South American countries, including Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Coatis are omnivorous, eating a mixed diet of fruit, nuts, insects, small animals and their eggs.

They are excellent climbers, searching for food high in forest canopies, while also being equally at home scouting amongst leaf-litter on the forest floor.

Females in a group come ‘on heat’ at the same time, mating with multiple males during this reproductive window. 2-4 young are born and cared for in an aerial nest for 4-6 weeks.

The new coatis enclosure is due to be completed on Thursday, September 2.

Noah’s Ark attracts more than 130,000 visitors each year.

The zoo farm was started in 1999 and animals include lions, giraffe, zebras, rhinos, tigers, gibbons, camels and 100 other types.

As well as the longest hedge maze in the world, visitors can enjoy huge indoor and outdoor adventure playgrounds.

http://www.nailseapeople.co.uk/news/Ra-s-rehoused-Noah-s-Ark-zoo-farm-near-Nailsea/story-6978571-detail/story.html