Besides being an excuse to sleep in, Easter Monday proved very felicitous after an endangered golden snub-nosed monkey was born for the first time in Hong Kong.
Ocean Park announced today that female monkey Le Le (no relation to the panda of the same name, but you knew that) successfully gave birth to a baby golden snub-nosed monkey yesterday; the first for both herself and the city.
The youngster, which hasn’t been named or sexed yet, is apparently showing “all the signs of a healthy and vital golden monkey baby”, such as holding on to its mother’s arm, and learning to suckle.
The newborn’s parents, Le Le and Qi Qi, have been on loan to Ocean Park from Chengdu Zoo since 2012 and 2015, respectively, as part of a conservation breeding program.
Suzanne Gendron, executive director of zoological operations and education, said the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures exhibit — where the animals live — would be partially closed for the next two to three days, in order to give mother and child “time to bond and establish their nursing routine”.
Yu Jianqiu, assistant director of Chengdu Zoo, said, “It is heartening to witness such a great result, considering Qi Qi just left […] for Ocean Park less than two years ago and it is the Park’s first time to facilitate the breeding of this species.”
Golden snub-nosed monkeys, which are native to southwest China, are a primarily herbivorous, tree-dwelling species. They are listed as “endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species, with an estimated population of 15,000 left in the wild throughout West-Central China.
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