The passing of Dougie, our beloved Sulawesi Crested Macaque

Dougie

Dougie was sent to UCD, where an extensive postmortem examination revealed that he had died from cardiac arrest due to a congenital defect.

As the patriarch of our troop, Dougie’s role was to maintain peace. Like all families, macaques have their differences and disagreements, and when things got too heated, Dougie would step in. He intervened only when necessary. Often, while waiting alongside a zookeeper for food, he would pop off to “deal with something”, returning in less than a minute while the rest of the troop apologised to one another in the background.

Dougie was incredibly smart and always eager to engage in training sessions to further our cooperative care program. He was usually the first to come over and see what we had to offer. As the main leader of the troop, Dougie was not one to share. He often sat beside enrichment items, waiting for others to figure them out before claiming the food for himself.