Hello everyone! I've been a reader for a while, thought now would be a good time to post.
Brief backstory... I owned several T's as a kid and teenager, and have just now decided to get back into the hobby at 25 years of age (couldn't stay away from such awesome creatures). In the last couple months I started a collection up again.
Anyway, there's a pet store close by, a real hole of a place, but convenient for some supplies and crix. Each time I went, I couldn't help but check out this Usambara Starburst Baboon for $30 in it's web tent. All of my other current and past T's were new world species, and this is a really beautiful specimen with bright orange coloration and blue highlights on the legs. Well today the wife went on a 3 day trip... and I decided to go buy it if I could determine it to be a probable female. Epigastric furrow looked VERY female to me - so it was a go.
To say this thing is a speedy little demon is an understatement. Perhaps this story will not be surprising to anyone who has owned one of these before. I knew it would be aggressive, but not this fast, nor this capable of climbing and escaping. Maybe it's just cause this is my first old world T, I don't know.
I explained to the guy that transferring this species to a container for me to take it home was not going to be easy. He worked with me and we decided to get a large plastic bin where we would do the transfer in and hold the container with tongs. At this time a customer came in and decided to stand around and watch as we wrangled the T. As I was moving it out if its home into the container, it started moving in slowly. Things looked good. That's when it got thoughts of a prison break. It took a sudden right out into the large plastic bin, scurried up out of it (so much for keeping it contained), and NO KIDDING, cleared about a 10" wide gap with a jump off the rim of the bin and down onto the nearby parrot cage! Yes I swear it actually jumped! It then ran around the parrot cage and down to the bottom where it started hanging by it's rear legs. The guy quickly caught it in the container as it dropped off towards the ground. Luckily it was not injured...
So I am now the proud new owner of a beautiful OBT. Funny thing though, it is now HANGING happily on the LID of the new enclosure. Aren't they a mostly terrestrial species? I have all this substrate for burrowing, but it doesn't look like it is going to use it at all. It seems very well adapted to climbing.
Brief backstory... I owned several T's as a kid and teenager, and have just now decided to get back into the hobby at 25 years of age (couldn't stay away from such awesome creatures). In the last couple months I started a collection up again.
Anyway, there's a pet store close by, a real hole of a place, but convenient for some supplies and crix. Each time I went, I couldn't help but check out this Usambara Starburst Baboon for $30 in it's web tent. All of my other current and past T's were new world species, and this is a really beautiful specimen with bright orange coloration and blue highlights on the legs. Well today the wife went on a 3 day trip... and I decided to go buy it if I could determine it to be a probable female. Epigastric furrow looked VERY female to me - so it was a go.
To say this thing is a speedy little demon is an understatement. Perhaps this story will not be surprising to anyone who has owned one of these before. I knew it would be aggressive, but not this fast, nor this capable of climbing and escaping. Maybe it's just cause this is my first old world T, I don't know.
I explained to the guy that transferring this species to a container for me to take it home was not going to be easy. He worked with me and we decided to get a large plastic bin where we would do the transfer in and hold the container with tongs. At this time a customer came in and decided to stand around and watch as we wrangled the T. As I was moving it out if its home into the container, it started moving in slowly. Things looked good. That's when it got thoughts of a prison break. It took a sudden right out into the large plastic bin, scurried up out of it (so much for keeping it contained), and NO KIDDING, cleared about a 10" wide gap with a jump off the rim of the bin and down onto the nearby parrot cage! Yes I swear it actually jumped! It then ran around the parrot cage and down to the bottom where it started hanging by it's rear legs. The guy quickly caught it in the container as it dropped off towards the ground. Luckily it was not injured...
So I am now the proud new owner of a beautiful OBT. Funny thing though, it is now HANGING happily on the LID of the new enclosure. Aren't they a mostly terrestrial species? I have all this substrate for burrowing, but it doesn't look like it is going to use it at all. It seems very well adapted to climbing.
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