08/11/2018

What Happens To The Monkeys Over Winter

We often get asked ‘what happens to the monkeys over winter’ a time when the park is closed to the public. Having just closed for the year we thought we’d answer some of these popular questions ahead of the winter season:

Do the monkeys go indoors over winter?

No, our monkeys are completely free-roaming within the 60-acre woodland and this doesn’t change over the winter months. We want to keep their habitat as natural as we possibly can.

Don’t the monkeys get cold in the winter?

Our monkeys are very well acclimatised, Barbary macaques are found in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Algeria where temperature can drop to -15c. They also have a short summer coat that grows into a thick winter coat to keep them warm through the winter months.

What do they do in the snow?

The monkeys are really well adapted to cold weather. Wild Barbary macaques face harsh winters with lots of snow. The Barbary macaques huddle for extra warmth and will often use tracks in the snow made by other monkeys.

Who looks after them?

We have a full-time team, including our Head Guide who feed and monitor the monkeys daily. The lucky staff get the monkeys to themselves for a few months!

What do you feed the monkeys over winter?

The monkeys continue to have a varied diet of fruit, vegetables and seed. As with the rest of the year, we give them sunflower seed and wheat over the winter months which they love to forage through the leaves to find!