If there was a monkey version of Married at First Sight, cotton-top tamarins Esteban and Celeste would probably be one of the more successful couples.
Plucked from zoos in the UK and Slovakia, the four- and five-year-old pair are now resident at Wellington Zoo in the hopes they'll contribute to the critically endangered population.
(Simon Wong / Newshub.)
It's an international love story which looks to be blooming, having only been introduced to each other in the past two weeks after a month of quarantine.
"They spent the month apart when they first arrived and then we started the introduction process. We do that really slowly to make sure they get to know each other really well before they have contact with each other," senior primate keeper Harmony Wallace says.
"But from the day we've put them together they've started grooming and bonding and they've bonded really well. That's a really good sign that they've formed a pair and they're happy with each other."
(Simon Wong / Newshub.)
Ms Wallace says there's always a risk animals won't be so smitten, but the slow introduction helps get them used to each other's company.
The species is native to Colombia, with only about 6000 believed to be left.
The zoo already has another pair of cotton-top tamarins, Diego and Delta, but they're past breeding age at 12 and 15 years old.
The pairs don't live together because of their territorial nature.
"Naturally, cotton-tops will live as a male and female pair with their offspring so they don't like others being in their territory, so they've got separate habitats now," Ms Wallace says.
The zoo's conservation fund supports Proyecto Titi, which monitors wild populations of the cotton-tops and develops community education programmes.
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