Medellín’s Santa Fe Zoo has reason to celebrate. This week it was the witness to a birth of a baby spider monkey, a genus of primates considered endangered.
Though the monkey was born this past week, zoo officials and researchers are still trying to figure out the sex.
“We still don’t know if it’s female or male because we try to leave the baby with its mother in the most natural way possible,” Catalina Díaz, the zoo’s flora and fauna coordinator, told Agence France-Presse newswire. Spider monkeys rely on their mothers for almost every aspect of care for nearly a full year after they are born.
Of the genus, the baby is of the black-headed spider monkey species, one of the most endangered primates species in the world.
Spider monkeys are seen throughout the jungles of Central America and some northern areas of the South American continent.
There are seven species under the spider monkey and all are thought to be endangered, with the black-headed and brown spider monkey species being critically endangered. Colombian black-headed spider monkeys are commonly seen on the Magdalena River, the country’s largest riverway, as well as in western parts of the country towards Panama.
Díaz told the AFP that the zoo now holds nearly two dozen spider monkeys and are expecting more to come.
“The coming year we’ll probably have more births,” Díaz said.
A full video courtesy of the AFP is available for viewing below:
