Photo: Tim Caraffa / Herald Sun
 

2/10/09

Melbourne Zoo is delighted to announce the birth of a baby Black and White Colobus monkey.

The baby, born on September 26th, is the second offspring for mother Clover and father Bodie.

Clover is already taking the baby out into the display area, carrying it close to her chest.

While the baby is so little, she may take it indoors for a while to keep it warm if the weather is very cold, wet, or windy,

Clover and Bodie's first baby, the male Indi, is now a very active three-year-old, and he is already taking a great interest in the new arrival in the family group.

His own birth in 2006 was the most recent previous Colobus birth at the Zoo, so this is the first time Indi has seen a newborn, and babies in this species look remarkably different from the adults.

Baby Colobus stand out clearly from the rest of the group, because instead of having black and white markings like the adults, the newborns are all white.

The texture of their coats is also different: it is crinkly, a real contrast to the sleek and glossy coats of the adults.

When the babies are several months old, their markings and colouration gradually change to the white face, chest, fringed cape and tail tuft that make such a dramatic contrast to their glossy black coats.

The newborn's mother Clover was born at Melbourne Zoo, the offspring of parents imported from Twycross Zoo in the UK as part of the international breeding program for the species.

Father Bodie was brought from Perth Zoo to be Clover's mate.

Black and White Colobus are native to Angola, Zaire, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Kenya.  They are vegetarians, eating leaves, seeds, buds, flowers, fruits, and shoots.

Hunters seeking their spectacular pelts have impacted severely on populations of this species, and as with all rainforest species habitat loss is also a serious problem.