00:00Hi, I'm Rosie, Folly Farms' Assistant Zoo Manager.
00:03We've recently welcomed four new macaques from Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland.
00:08We've got Anna Lee, who is 12. We've got Fia, who is 4.
00:12We've got Gigi, who is 3. And we've got Harper, who is 2.
00:15Harper is so tiny that you'll be able to tell her apart.
00:18She is, yeah, she's very small, very sweet.
00:21We have just recently mixed them with our resident macaques.
00:24So we've got Vivian, who is believed to be about 21.
00:27We don't actually know how old she is due to the fact that she was taken from the wild and
00:32brought into the pet trade.
00:33She was found in the streets of France, bless her, when she was then taken to AAP,
00:38which is a charity that sort of rehabilitates macaques that have been taken from the wild.
00:43And she's lived here with her mate Leila. Leila is 19.
00:47She was found in a houseboat in the Netherlands and then once again taken to the charity.
00:52And they've been here since 2008 and they've got on really well.
00:57We did originally used to have eight macaques, but now we've just got the two.
01:01So we wanted to boost our numbers up and bring in four more girls.
01:04And then hopefully we'll bring in a breeding male at some point.
01:07And then in the future we'll hopefully be able to breed and they can help the populations.
01:12Three of the new macaques that have arrived, they were born at Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland.
01:17However, Anna Lee, even though she has lived at Blair Drummond for the past 12 years, she was actually a
01:23rescue from Gibraltar,
01:24which sort of fits in with our two rescues that we've got here, Viv and Leila.
01:29They were eventually probably would have been used for the pet trade, for the photo shoot opportunities.
01:33So when macaques are small, they're obviously very cute and people would take them from their mothers when they're babies
01:39and then they'll be used.
01:40They'll be dressed up.
01:41They'll be put in chains and people then compose and have photos with them.
01:45And then obviously once the macaque grows up, they would get more aggressive, they get stronger.
01:49This is when you will find them sort of dumped somewhere because obviously they are too hard to handle,
01:53which is why I think Leila probably ended up in a boat and Viv was found on the streets.
01:59I imagine they'd obviously been dumped then because they're too big, they're too aggressive.
02:03But yeah, thankfully they've had a very lovely life here.
02:06And yeah, hopefully now with the new ones, they'll settle in and they'll make friends.
02:09Macaque Medina officially opened in spring this year, bringing Leila and Viv down to settle in.
02:15And then we brought in the four new ones in from Bledrumund.
02:19They've settled in really well.
02:21The house was redone completely.
02:23So the house that was here before was our original house from 2008.
02:26So that was no longer fit for purpose.
02:28So we wanted to build something bigger and better for them.
02:30So inside there is two rooms.
02:32One is on show and one is off show, just to give them that bit of privacy.
02:35And they've also got a shut off area as well if we need to use that, which they have access
02:39to.
02:39In the house itself, there's a lovely bio floor.
02:42So it's natural for them.
02:44So they'll use a lot of forage and behaviour.
02:45So they'll picture the floor of any bugs and insects.
02:48And then there's also a lot of sort of branching and rope and stuff in there as well.
02:53Yeah, they've been having fun sort of swinging off the rope.
02:55It's been very nice to see them moving around and exploring that area.
02:59The outside area of the enclosure also got a revamp as well.
03:05So we've done a new climbing frame and different sort of structures out there.
03:08So they've got a lot of areas to play.
03:10There's also areas where they can forage and pick through.
03:14And yeah, just do all those lovely natural behaviours, which is what we want to promote.
03:18One thing that you can do to help wild macaques is not to go out to Morocco
03:21and pose with photos for a macaque on your shoulder, as this just keeps fueling the pet trade.
03:27So if anyone does offer you a macaque to have a photo with, please just say no.
03:34The arrival of this troop has been a long time coming.
03:37So please come down this summer and see them at Foley Farm.
03:41I'm Jack and I'm the Conservation Officer here at Foley Farm.
03:45And we're really proud to introduce our new barbara macaques.
03:48You can find barbara macaques across Morocco and in Gibraltar.
03:52Barbara macaque population has declined by 50% in the last 40 years.
03:57So they're now classed as an endangered species.
03:59And that is one of the reasons why we have them here at Foley Farm.
04:01And they are part of a European breeding programme.
04:06Barbara macaques suffer with a few different threats across Morocco.
04:11One of them is the pet trade.
04:12So when they're young, they are taken or abducted from their families
04:17and used as photoprops and for pets.
04:21This has a huge impact on their population.
04:24And their population is also under threat from wildfires because of climate change.
04:30Luckily, we work with BMAC, which is the barbara macaque awareness and conservation charity.
04:35And they do incredible work working with local communities, engaging with people and educating them on why barbara macaques are
04:42important for the environment.
04:43And we also have helped supply firefighting equipment for local communities in order to control wildfires across the region.
04:51We have helped to fundraise for BMAC for over a decade.
04:55And we do this in many different ways through our animal adoption scheme and also our new zoo brew.
05:00And the money raised goes to various different projects across BMAC and our other conservation partners.
05:07And we do this in many different projects.
