Nine Bearded Monkeys From the Amazon Canopy Move Onto Bamboo Trail as Nashville Zoo Opens Its Saki Habitat
There is a new neighborhood on Bamboo Trail, and its residents have beards.
Nashville Zoo at Grassmere opens a habitat on Saturday, Sept. 26, for nine red-backed bearded sakis, a rarely exhibited South American monkey. The new space sits next to two of the trail's favorites, the clouded leopards and the red-ruffed lemurs, so a short walk down that stretch now covers treetop life from three continents.
Meet the saki
If you have never seen one, the first impression is a little bit wizard. Red-backed bearded sakis wear a thick coat of dark hair, with a saddle of red to golden-yellow across the back, a full beard framing the face and a heavy, bushy tail. Unlike a spider monkey, they cannot grip with that tail. It is for balance, not for hanging.
They come from the rainforests of northern South America, including Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, where they live high in the canopy of old, undisturbed forest and tend to stay near streams. Most of their diet is plant-based, with seeds, flowers, nuts and fruit drawn from roughly 100 plant species, though they will also eat insects, larvae and spiders. Their teeth are specially shaped to crack hard seed pods that other animals cannot open, which is part of what makes them such a specialist of the deep forest.
The species is listed as least concern internationally, but its habitat is not so comfortable. Forest clearing and fragmentation, hunting and a changing climate all put pressure on animals that depend on unbroken stretches of rainforest.
A habitat built to be climbed
Because sakis spend nearly their whole lives off the ground, the zoo designed the space vertically. A web of trees gives the troop climbing routes and elevated pathways, so visitors should see them running, leaping and foraging well above eye level. Feeders are built directly into the tree work, which lets keepers hide food in different places from day to day. Keeping the animals guessing, and searching, is the point: it mirrors how they find food in the wild.
Zoo leadership has said the species was chosen as an ambassador for the Amazon, a way to make an ecosystem most Tennesseans will never visit feel close enough to care about. Nine animals is a sizable troop to open with, which should make the habitat lively from its very first morning.
Plan a visit
The saki habitat is included with regular zoo admission, and it is an easy detour on the way to the clouded leopards. If you are heading out this weekend, the zoo's grounds are busy for another reason too: its Hispanic Heritage Festival is also on Saturday. Here is what to know about the festival, and for more ideas, see our short list of family fall outings around Nashville.
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