Tickets for the biggest exhibition of primate behaviour ever staged go on sale today, Earth Day, Tue 22 April
- Tickets for Monkeys: Our Primate Family available to book at nms.ac.uk/Monkeys
To mark the occasion, Louie the orangutan swung by the Grand Gallery at the National Museum of Scotland to meet Scottish primary school pupils Azalea Moghrabi aged eight and Marley Beamish aged seven.
Thanks to the support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery, children can visit Monkeys: Our Primate Family (28 Jun – 30 Nov 2025) for free.
For the first time, the National Museum of Scotland is also offering those on Universal Credit and other named UK benefits discounted exhibition entry.
From huge gorillas to tiny mouse lemurs, Monkeys will explore the remarkable lives of primates, our closest relatives. The exhibition will bring together more than 50 species and will raise awareness of continuing conservation efforts to protect these extraordinary animals and their fragile habitats.
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 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 at National Museums Scotland, said: ““We are all primates, but how much do we really know about our extended family?
“Following a successful global tour, I am delighted that more Scottish audiences than ever will be able to experience this remarkable exhibition, with discounts available for those receiving Universal Credit and other named UK benefits.
“Kids will also go free thanks to the support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Monkeys: Our Primate Family provides a unique opportunity to see these fascinating animals up close and learn what we can do to protect them in the wild.”
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 swings 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 shouts its ultrasonic calls and a vervet monkey reveals 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.
All the primates on display are part of National Museums Scotland’s internationally significant natural sciences collection which comprises more than 10 million specimens and is in constant use for study.
Recent pioneering research has included the first comprehensive osteobiography of a zoo animal, Choppers, star of the PG Tips adverts of the 1970s, published in Scientific Reports in March 2025.
Monkeys: Our Primate Family
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh
28 June–30 November 2025
Tickets are available to book at nms.ac.uk/Monkeys
The exhibition will be supported by a programme of public events.
