ZooBorns

Little Langurs Swing into Australia

ZooBorns was seeing double today when two Australian zoos shared pictures of their new langur babies within minutes of one another. Taronga Zoo announced the birth of an endangered, bright orange Francois Leaf Monkey, the first to be raised by its mother in Australia. The male infant was born to mother, ‘Saigon’, and father, ‘Hanoi’, and discovered cradled in its mother’s arms in the early morning of Saturday 30 January by zoo keepers who had been monitoring the pregnancy.

Taronga Zoo Primate Keeper, Roxanne Pellat, said: “Obviously we were all very relieved when we discovered Keo-co cradled in Saigon’s arms. He had been licked clean, was warm, alert and the two adult females began sharing the role of caring for him. This is exactly what we hoped to see as this birth is particularly significant.” 

Meanwhile at the Adelaide Zoo, three-time Dusky Leaf Monkey mom, Flier, gave birth to a healthy little girl, who is already proving to be a very mischievous, cheeky monkey... she is in to everything and is always trying to go off exploring, meaning Flier is constantly chasing after her. She will lose that brilliant coloring by the time she's three months and will begin to turn grey to match the rest of her family.

Dusky Leaf Monkeys or Dusky Langurs are native to Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.  In the wild the species is under threat from hunting for food, as is habitat loss and degradation due to expanding oil palm plantations, agriculture, and urbanization.  In Peninsular Malaysia the animals are frequent victims of road-kill. 

Learn and see more below the fold.

First Palm Cockatoo in (almost) 40 Years!

On October 5 an egg hatched at Adelaide Zoo in South Australia and out popped a Palm Cockatoo chick with a face that only a mother Palm Cockatoo could love! She has since grown into a gorgeous bird! This is the first successful Zoo birth of a Palm Cockatoo in Australia since 1973 and Adelaide Zoo is the only Zoo in Australia to house Palm Cockatoos.  Adelaide Zoo keepers decided to take the egg away from her parents as they had a poor history of incubating their own eggs.  The egg was then placed in an incubator and once hatched the chick was cared for by keepers.  For the first few weeks of her life she needed feeding every hour and a half.  This kept the keepers very busy who in turn took her home over night for those 2am feeds!  Since the Palm Cockatoo are native to warm regions such as northern Queensland, Australia, New Guinea island in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, the chick had to be kept at a constant temperature of 35C/95F degrees during her early development.

Photo credits: Adelaide Zoo

Little Mandrill Girl Greets the World

This past October Australia's Adelaide Zoo welcomed a newborn female Mandrill to first time mother Niari. Adelaide Zoo’s Mandrills have not bred in a number of years but first time mom Niari is reportedly doing quite well with her little one. To date no keeper assistance has been needed, which can be the case with some first time mothers. The baby is almost two months old now and can be seen throughout the exhibit riding along with Mom, suckling, and starting to explore her surroundings. Although inquisitive she still stays close to Niari.

The Mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey and is found in the tropical rainforests and occasionally woodlands of southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo.  Mandrills are listed as vulnerable as a result of intensive hunting pressure and habitat loss across their native region.

Photo credits: David Mattner for Zoos South Australia

A Peculiarly Wonderful Ball of Fluff

Longtime ZooBorns readers (or book owners!) will be no strangers to the peculiarly wonderful balls of fluff that are baby Tawny Frogmouth chicks. This little bird was born at Australia's Adelaide Zoo in October. The parents are both hand raised and it is unusual for hand raised birds to successfully raise their own young.  However these parents are doing a great job caring for the chick and are also feeding it well, with minimal supplementary feeding from the keepers. The chick weighed only 22 grams at birth (.8 ounces!) but is now a few months old and weighing in at 197 grams and can be seen flying around the exhibit but still staying close to its parents.

Don't miss this video which shows the chick at an even younger age.

Tawny Frogmouths are found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania and southern Papua New Guinea. They are often hard to spot within the trees as they camouflage so well. The Zoo is currently holding a naming contest for the chick. Vote today!