A pair of South America white-faced saki monkeys have been in quarantine indoors at the zoo until this month.
Zoo research officer Dr Kirsten Pullen is the European endangered species programme coordinator for the species and she said it is only the male which has the white face for which it is named.
She said: "It is also known as the flying monkey because it can jump quite large distances.
"Their conservation status is listed as least concern, but there is still a lot we don't know about them.
"We do know they are hunted for meat, taken as pets and suffer from deforestation, so they will probably become increasingly threatened in the future.
"As species coordinator I am focusing research efforts on the zoo population. I currently have a student looking at female mate selection and whether the male's white face is a method of signalling to females."
The white-faced saki is a species which Paignton Zoo has not had in its collection for more than 20 years.
The male, Richard, was born in 2001 at Cologne Zoo and the female, Carita, is three years old and comes from Stockholm Zoo.
The pair are on show at Monkey Heights, but indoors only, as they are in quarantine until January.
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