The day of 14 July 1960 Dr Jane Goodall, the world famous primatologist specialising in chimpanzees, stepped into what is now Gombe Stream National Park, in Tanzania, for the very first time to study this species in their natural habitat. This is why all the organisations working in chimpanzee conservation selected this date to celebrate World Chimpanzee Day, joining forces to cry out in favour of conserving our primate cousins, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, and to alert people on the problems they are facing and that threaten their survival in the jungle.

To celebrate this very special day, we have brought together the organisations working on chimpanzee conservation in our home to jointly issue a stronger and unified message.

We encourage everybody who wants to share this day with us at the Zoo and to participate in all the activities we have organised! For a world in which we can all live together! Come and collect your souvenir badge! Come and collect your souvenir badge!

Programme for World Chimpanzee Day at the Barcelona Zoo:

#DiaMundialXimpanzé #WordChimpanzeeDay

Starting at 10.00 am

Tents and diverse activities with SOS Primates (all day), the Spanish Jane Goodall Institute, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary and the Mona Foundation (morning).

Lady with the Umbrella Square

10.30 am to 1.30 pm and 3.00 to 4.30 pm 

The Zoo educators present our chimpanzees to visitors and explain their status in nature and how we can help them.  Ongoing family activity in sessions of approximately 20 minutes. In front of their exhibit.

11.00   

Presentation of the exhibition ‘Jane Goodall Institute: Protecting the Chimpanzees’ on the scientific career of Dr Goodall.

120th anniversary classroom in the Aviary (open until 24 September).

11.30   

Round table with representatives from all the organisations present at the Zoo so that each one of us can explain the work we are doing.

120th anniversary classroom in the Aviary. Approximate length of 1 hour.

12.00 (Lady with the Umbrella square), 1.30 (Lady with the Umbrella square) and 4.30 (Zoo Farm)

In collaboration with SOS Primates, we have prepared a very special activity for the youngest kids!: Our entertainer Quim will read us the letters that Mussa and Tibé wrote each other, two chimpanzees that live respectively at the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Sanctuary (Congo) and at the Barcelona Zoo.

We hope that World Chimpanzee Day will be marked on your planner every year as an important meeting for all lovers of nature and animals and that it will help us to feel more united to these wonderful primates so close to us.

On 15 December 2014, Oli was born at the Zoo, a male brown spider monkey (Ateles hybridus). His mother, Perla, who was a first time mother, did not know how to raise him adequately and—faced with an extremely high risk of death—we decided to raise him with a bottle. All the primate caretakers at the Zoo intensively cared for him for six months, feeding him and giving him the support he needed to develop properly and, in parallel, have some type of contact with his family. If family ties are completely lost, future reintegration with the group is not possible, and integration was our objective.

Oli advanced very slowly in his locomotive and social skills, which made everything more difficult. However, his carers would not give up or be discouraged and did everything possible to help him. The application of play therapy developed for the Zoo’s primate section was decisive, which gave him the confidence he seemed to be lacking in order to move forward (playing creates a relaxed atmosphere that favours social interaction between individuals). Bit by bit, with a lot of hard work and affection, Oli's total reintegration with his family was finally possible in February 2017. Since then, he has led a normal life with his group, made up of his parents Perla and Sito, another young male and four females.

The case of Oli is the first individual from this species to completely reintegrate with his family. We are very satisfied because the experience and knowledge acquired are not only really useful to us, but sharing them with other colleagues working in the world of conservation lets us do our small part for the conservation of this critically endangered species.

The brown spider monkey (Ateles hybridus) is one of the most critically endangered species in the Neotropics. It inhabits the region from northern Colombia to northwest Venezuela in the flatland rainforests, wooded shores and low mountain jungles at no more than 700 metres of altitude.

This primate has strictly tree-dwelling customs and its limbs are extremely long, as well as its prehensile tail, which acts as a fifth limb and helps it move among the branches of trees.

They are gregarious animals and move through the jungles in small subgroups of some four individuals, although they can form larger groups with between 30 and 40 members. They reach sexual maturity late and give birth to a single baby after a gestation of seven and a half months. Adults weigh from seven to nine kg.

According to the IUCN Red List, this species is critically endangered. Its natural population has shrunk by 45% in the last 45 years due to hunting and the loss of habitat.

Yesterday morning we opened a new space dedicated to the Montseny Brook Newt (calotriton arnoldi) - an amphibian that is in critical danger of extinction and which only lives in the Montseny mountain range and is Catalonia’s only endemic vertebrate. The new facility doubles the number of square metres that the newt can reproduce in. It also includes an educational classroom for raising awareness and delivering environmental education via computer games, videos, information panels, interactive material and direct observation of newt in aquaria. Together, these will provide information about the biology of this species and the efforts made to prevent it from becoming extinct.

Project LIFE - Montseny Brook Newt conservation

This has all been made possible thanks to the Montseny brook newt (calotriton arnoldi) conservation project - coordinated by Barcelona City Council together with Catalonia’s regional government, the Girona council, Forestal Catalana and Barcelona Zoo - being selected in 2016 as a LIFE Project for the European Union. The Montseny Brook Newt conservation programme has a total budget of €2,971,276 - 60% of which is provided by the LIFE project, which will promote activities aimed at improving the conservation status of this species up until 2020.

Some of these activities will involve reducing the identified threats to the newt, improving the status of the water in the Montseny Natural Park waterfalls, extending the area of ​​distribution of the species by reintroducing specimens raised in captivity, ensuring genetic variation, and making special efforts to raising awareness about the importance of this species.

In critical danger of extinction

The first populations of this animal were discovered in 1979, and were attributed to the Pyrenean newt species. Later, in 2005, morphological studies concluded that it was a species in its own right:  the Montseny brook newt. There were also two subspecies: the eastern and western.

In recent years, the population of Montseny newts has decreased by 15%, and has become the most threatened amphibian in Western Europe, and is on the UICN red list as a species in critical danger of extinction. The survival of this species is closely linked to the conservation of water resources as well as the surrounding forest areas.

Successful captive-breeding for reintroduction

Since it was discovered, a conservation programme for this new species has been run by Barcelona’s provincial council and Catalonia’s regional government. And, in 2007 a pilot reproduction programme was launched at the Torreferrussa Wildlife Recovery Centre. Barcelona Zoo joined in six years ago together with the Pont de Suert Wildlife Centre, with the aim of improving options for the species in the event of a future critical situation. For the same reason, Torreferrusa sent 24 specimens last year to Chester Zoo in England - one of the most prestigious places for amphibian recovery.

This year, since the start of the breeding season in May, 38 newt larvae have already been produced at the Zoo, adding to the 11 that were born last year; they are expected to continue being born until the end of September. That same month, the Torreferrussa and Pont de Suert centres also increased the capacity of their brook newt in-captivity breeding facilities.

The aim of the breeding program is to have enough specimens to be able to repopulate their habitat and build on the brook newt populations that have already been reintroduced in recent years. Very recent good news that confirms the success of the project is the discovery of the first larva born in nature from previously reintroduced specimens. This is hugely satisfying for all of us working to conserve the biodiversity of Montseny - a Biosphere Reserve for 40 years now.

The Montseny Brook Newt Life Space gives new impetus to the Zoo’s efforts to collaborate on conserving this small local amphibian, and is a good example of the integrated management (awareness raising, a threatened species and reintroduction back into the environment) that we aim to pursue through our new Strategic Plan.

You can follow the day-to-day progress of this project via our networks and on our Montseny Brook Newt Twitter account.