Taronga Zoo staff are celebrating the birth of a bright orange,
endangered Francois Langur, the first to be raised by its mother in
Australia. The male infant, named ‘Gan Ju’ meaning orange in Mandarin was born to
mother, ‘Saigon’, and father, ‘Hanoi’ and discovered in the early
morning of Thursday 22 April by the Zoo’s dedicated keeping staff who
had been monitoring the pregnancy.
Photo Credit: Lorinda Taylor / Taronga Zoo
A bequest left by the late Jacqueline Crookston, enabled the Taronga
Wildlife Hospital to purchase a much needed digital x-ray machine, and
when the Zoo's veterinary team tested out the new equipment they were
delighted to see an astonishingly clear image of the unborn ‘Gan Ju’ steadily growing inside its mother.
The Bronx Zoo recently announced two very special additions to its family – a new baby brown collared lemur in the zoo’s Madagascar! exhibit and a baby silver leaf langur in JungleWorld. Both recently born at WCS’s Bronx Zoo, and both are special species as there are less than 50 of each in captivity world wide.
hard to spot in all this fur, but this little lemur is clinging tight to Mom!
The silver leaf langur baby has a striking orange color in comparison to its parents’ silver coats and will continue to stand out until its fur changes color somewhere between three to five months of age.
The baby langurs keep coming at the Columbus Zoo! On August 29, parents Gumby (mom) and Digby (dad), welcomed another bright orange offspring, the third for Gumby and fourth for Digby, including baby Fernando, who was born in July. The babies' coats will change to the silvery-gray of adulthood between three to five months after birth. Highly social monkeys, langurs often snuggle in groups
with the baby in the middle.
Highly social leaf-eating monkeys, Silvery Langurs are native to Southeast Asia. Like some other types of langurs, baby silvery langurs are born with bright orange fur. This is mother Patty's first baby but the third for the Columbus Zoo, the other two born to "Gumby."
Even within the safety of a zoo exhibit, mothers provide comfort and a sense of security that has no substitute. Weighing under a pound, this tiny Francois' langur baby was born April 29 at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Watchful mom "Petunia" instinctively keeps the little bundle of unmistakable bright orange swaddled in her furry arms and legs.
Now we haven't seen every baby Francois Langur born in the world, but we are pretty confident when we say they don't come much cuter than this little girl. Born at Australia's Taronga Zoo just four days ago, this is a critical birth for conservation efforts. A recent census found that there may be as few as 1,000 Francois Langurs left in the wild in their native Vietnam and China.
Photo credit (bottom three photos): Braden Fastier
What is it about some baby monkey's that make them look like tiny, adorable, old men? Clearly baby langurs provided the inspiration for Benjamin Button. On a serious note, Francois' langurs are an endangered species and this little fellow born at the Lincoln Park Zoo will contribute to a Species Survival Plan, aiding conservation efforts.
