They passed away unexpectedly of a very contagious primate bacteria called Shigella.  Eerie has recovered from this terrible disease and is fine.  The Zoo is now looking at options for the Siamang exhibit and companionship for Eerie.

Deja was such a special little siamang with enormous character, pluck and a winning personality.  She was full of energy and had an active mind that she used to play and keep herself and us amused and entertained. Suni was a loving parent to two siamang offspring (Indy-ray & Adi) and a foster infant, Deja.  She nourished, cared for, protected them and disciplined them when it was appropriate.  She was the one that kept the siamang family safe and restored peace if quarrels would break out.  Losing Suni and Deja is heartbreaking, words cannot express how much we miss them, but their memories will live on in our hearts.              

Griselda Martinez, Collections Supervisor

From Our Archives

Meet Deja, a very special baby siamang, January 28, 2022

Later this year on August 5 our youngest siamang Deja will be turning 4 years old.   She was born at the Pittsburg Zoo and has a very interesting story. 

When she was six-months-old baby Deja arrived at the El Paso Zoo on January 30, 2019.  Not long after she arrived she was welcomed by her step sister Adina and her step mother Suni. Deja was hand-raised by Pittsburg Zoo animal care staff after her mother rejected her at birth.  Collection Supervisor Griselda Martinez says she is doing wonderful. 

Her stepsister Adina has since moved to the National Zoo in Washington DC to be a part of the Species Survival Plan and a new family member, an almost 5-year-old male named Eerie, has moved here from the Albuquerque Biopark to be a part of the El Paso Zoo family. Watch and listen for them in the Asia section of the Zoo. 

These interesting black apes from Indonesia are some of the most vocal animals living along the Asia Endangered Species Walk.   Early in the day siamangs will make vocalizations that include an amazing Tarzan-like yell.   Using their inflatable throat sacs, they make deep booming calls that can be heard as far away as the Zoo parking lot.   When they make these deep sounds they usually will call together making the sound even louder with high-pitched barking sounds and high-pitched screams.  If you arrive at the Zoo early in the morning walk over as soon as you hear them.  It is an amazing experience to watch and listen to siamangs making their rainforest calls.   Why do they do it?   The answer is pretty simple, the calls are both reaffirming to the family that they are a family and largely territorial.  They simply have no idea that they are the only siamangs living in El Paso.  Just to make sure that any siamang in the area might come into their territory, they want all rainforest creatures to know that they are here.  Siamangs live in small families composed of a mated pair and their young. Unlike larger apes like gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans that walk with their hands and feet siamangs walk with their hands in the air.  

Siamangs are declining in numbers as their habitat is destroyed for logging and expanding palm oil plantations and as people enter their forested territory, often killing the mothers in order to capture the young for the lucrative pet market.   The Zoo supports various conservation programs to help siamangs and other endangered species in Asia including the Species Survival Program and the Indonesia Species Conservation Program.