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Exotic drama unfolds in The Nest

It has been billed as the best hospital drama in town - and the soap opera starts long before the stars are admitted to Wellington Zoo's new animal hospital.

The spider monkeys are having domestics. Teenage alpha male Jackie Chan has been picking on elderly alpha female Beya, and she is no longer able to defend herself. Roughed-up and brutalised, Beya is in isolation so her wounds can heal before staff attempt a staged re-introduction to the troop.

Meanwhile, the established hierarchy is under threat in the African wild dog enclosure, where stumpy- tailed, big-eared Mongo has a broken tooth, but is pretending he is fit and well so his subordinates don't threaten his fragile hold over the pack.

And three new cotton-top tamarins - tiny monkeys with peroxide- blonde spiky 80s hairdos - are being slowly introduced to each other in the hope they might get along, but it is not going well.

The list of pint-sized injuries sustained through the wire separating their cages includes extracted fingernails, various bites and cuts, and a broken thumb.

Like sands through the hourglass, these are just some of the daily episodes in a soap opera unfolding among the menagerie at Wellington Zoo. The zoo's battle-worn, the sick, and the...read more.