On 28^th February 2015 staff at Colchester Zoo were devastated to lose male mandrill, Dume, who was 20 years of age and the dominant breeding male within the group.

Dume had been a resident at Colchester Zoo since 2004 and was a popular character at the zoo with staff as well as visitors and will be greatly missed. Since living at Colchester Zoo Dume became father to over 15 young including our most recent mandrill youngster Suki, born 26^th February 2014.

A few days before Dume passed away keepers noticed that he had problems using his back legs and was starting to show signs of his age. A visit from the vet and prescribed medication made no difference to his behaviour so to prevent Dume’s condition from worsening the decision was made to put him to sleep. A post mortem confirmed that Dume had very severe arthritis to the spine which no medication would have helped.

Curator, Lisa Doran commented, “Dume will be sadly missed as he was a lovely character but his legacy lives on in his young”.