London, UK: The birth of the rarest chimpanzee in the world at Chester Zoo is being hailed by environmentalists as providing “hope” for the severely endangered species.
After an eight-month pregnancy, the “precious” baby boy was safely delivered by the new mum ZeeZee, a critically endangered western chimpanzee. According to the zoo, the boy is in good health and has spent his first few weeks of life bonding with his mother and the other members of the 22-person troop.
? WORLD'S RAREST CHIMPANZEE BORN ?
Proud Mum ZeeZee safely delivered her tiny baby boy after an eight month pregnancy ❤️
80% of Western chimpanzees have been wiped out in the wild, leaving them on the brink of extinction… pic.twitter.com/N08GIQtZwJ
— Chester Zoo (@chesterzoo) January 11, 2023
The chimpanzee will be named after a rockstar or famous pop icon to help boost the profile of the highly threatened species, in what is a longstanding tradition among conservationists. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has just listed the western chimpanzee subspecies as severely endangered, with only about 18,000 of them left in Africa.
As per primatologists, the birth of the new newborn boy provides more “hope” for the species’ long-term survival. The Chester Zoo’s team manager, Mr. Andrew Lenihan, expressed how he and his coworkers are “incredibly proud to see a precious new baby in the chimpanzee troop.”
Mr. Lenihan stated that a birth always creates “a lot of excitement in the group”, as raising a youngster soon becomes a “real extended family affair.”
According to the statement, the apes are under significant threat in the wild as a result of hunting for the illegal bush meat trade, diseases spread by humans and extensive habitat loss and forest destruction across West Africa. Senegal and Ghana are two West African countries where small populations of western chimpanzees can still be found, however, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Togo are all now extinct.
BUSINESS: Global growth may slow “Perilously Close” to recession; World Bank
