Recently, I went on a visit to the Bristol Zoo with my girlfriend. Unfortunately, it was raining quite heavily, so we ducked into the more covered areas to get out of it. Whilst we were getting out of the rain, we quite enjoyed watching the ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) in the primate section.
Classification: Primates
Aye-aye (Lemurs and Prosimians by Play Visions)
4 (2 votes)
Review and images by stemturtle, edited by bmathison1972
The aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, is a bizarre lemur, with ears like a bat, continuously growing incisors like a beaver, and a long bony middle finger for extracting grubs from under bark. These are adaptations for percussive foraging, which is to tap on wood, echolocate movement, chew a hole, and hook the grub.
Potto (Lemurs and Prosimians by Play Visions)
4.3 (3 votes)
Review and images by stemturtle; edited by bmathison1972
The potto, Perodicticus potto, may look like a little bear, but it is a strepsirrhine primate, commonly called a prosimian. The potto is nocturnal and arboreal, moving slowly through the canopy. Its distribution is the tropical rainforests of equatorial Africa, including the Congo region.
Mountain Gorilla (Wildlife by CollectA)
4.8 (5 votes)
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
As its name suggests, the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) inhabits chilly mountain forests in a tiny section of Central Africa, at elevations ranging from 2200 to 4300 metres. Much of what we know of this wonderful ape comes from the meticulous research of mammalogist George Schaller and the late primatologist Dian Fossey, who gave her life in the service of protecting her beloved gorillas.
Orangutan (Wildlife by CollectA)
5 (5 votes)
Review and photographs by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The word “orangutan” means “person of the forest,” and you need only observe one of these beautiful and brilliant apes for a few minutes to see what a fitting name that is. There are presently three species: the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), the Sumatran orangutan (P.
Primates TOOB (Safari Ltd.)
5 (3 votes)
Review of the 2019 Primates TOOB by Safari Ltd. I had bought this set early on when I started my Synoptic Collection, mainly for the marmoset and tamarins. I have since retained the bonobo and sifaka too, pending eventual release of standard-sized figures of these species. This TOOB is another example of Safari Ltd recently upping the game in their TOOB sets, with others being Whales (2018), Dolphins (2019), Great Lakes (2020), African Savannah (2020), and Pelagic Fishes (2019).
Spider Monkey (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
2.8 (4 votes)
Review and photographs by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Spider monkeys, which belong to the genus Ateles, live in the jungles of Central and South America. They derive their popular name from their long, spindly limbs and prehensile tail. Such adaptations make them superbly agile climbers despite their relatively large size.
Aye-aye (Ueno Zoo Box by Colorata)
3 (3 votes)
This time around I’m going to introduce what I think is the first primate to the blog…and what could be more appropriate than one of the more primitive modern primates, a strepsirrhine, a lemur to be exact? Specifically, the aye-aye Daubentonia madagascariensis Gmelin 1788. So, also one of the weirdest primates as well, and an endangered on as well (on an island of full weird and endangered organisms).