Day: January 11, 2025

The biggest exhibition of primate behaviour ever staged is returning to the National Museum of Scotland. From huge gorillas to tiny mouse lemurs, Monkeys: Our Primate Family (28 Jun – 30 Nov 2025) will explore the remarkable lives of our closest relatives.  

The exhibition will bring together more than 50 species of monkeys, apes, lemurs and lorises, allowing visitors to come face-to-face with our primate relatives. Atmospheric lighting and naturalistic displays will create a jungle experience as visitors enter the exhibition and discover some of the rarest and most endangered primate species on earth. 

Monkeys: Our Primate Family is the first exhibition of its kind, capturing primates acting as they would in the wild. Taxidermy specimens created for the exhibition reveal behaviours rarely seen by humans and demonstrate how primate species have adapted to survive in diverse environments.

The exhibition will also explore continuing conservation efforts to protect these extraordinary animals and their fragile habitats. 

The exhibition first opened at the National Museum of Scotland in 2016 before embarking on an international tour. It returns to Edinburgh for a final time having been seen by over 500,000 visitors in six countries around the world. 

Dr Andrew Kitchener, Principal Curator of Vertebrate Biology, said: ““We are all primates, but how much do we really know about our extended family?

“Following a successful global tour, this will be the last chance to experience this remarkable exhibition. Monkeys: Our Primate Family provides a unique opportunity to see these fascinating animals up close. Visitors will also learn about the threats facing primates and what we can do to protect them.” 

Visitors to Monkeys will discover how primates have evolved and adapted, their unique methods of locomotion, and the tools they have developed to obtain food. A gibbon will swing through the trees while a chimpanzee fishes for termites.

The exhibition will also reveal the fascinating ways they communicate and their complex social systems.

A tarsier will be shown using ultrasonic communication and a vervet monkey will reveal how its different calls warn about each different predator. 

The final section of the exhibition looks at conservation as well as some of the threats humans pose to primates today, including the climate emergency, conflict, and the bush meat trade.

Visitors will see endangered primates, including the Sumatran orangutan and the black-and-white ruffed lemur and learn about how we can make a difference to their survival. 

The exhibition will be supported by a programme of public events.