Our planet is home to thousands upon thousands of species, large and small, cute and ugly, and human activity has driven many of them to the brink of extinction in just the past few decades. Today, we’re already fighting to ensure that many species simply remain with us. Sometimes, we even succeed.
It's often easier to restore animal populations in zoos, where they are always under the watchful eye of scientists. Some species, unfortunately, don’t reproduce in captivity, but fortunately, this is not the case with these adorable monkeys, the heroes of our story today.
More info: OKC Zoo
Many animal species in the world have found themselves literally at the verge of extinction due to human activity, so it's time to restore their population now
Image credits: Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden / Facebook
A pair of Francois' langurs living in the Oklahoma City Zoo since 2021 has recently delivered their second baby
Meet the Francois' langur, a small monkey from the marmoset family that in the wild lives in southeastern China and northern Vietnam, but has been on the brink of extinction in recent decades. There are just over 2,000 of these funny, cute monkeys in the world today, so any baby born in captivity truly matters.
Image credits: Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden / Facebook
Pam and Ripley, a pair of langurs who have been living at the Oklahoma City Zoo since 2021, gave birth to a female infant named Fera last year, and just recently welcomed another addition to the family. The monkeys gave birth to a male baby, who hasn't yet been named but has already won the hearts of netizens. Simply because he's a complete cuteness overload!
Image credits: Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden / Facebook
The baby has a reddish-orange fur, thanks to which his photos went really viral
The typical coloring of langurs’ fur is black with amusing white sideburns, but babies are born with bright orange fur, which darkens with age. This helps parents to better spot their babies among the dense forest cover. While Fera, for example, was born with orange fur only on her head, her younger bro is completely reddish orange.
Image credits: Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden / Facebook
Over the past four decades, the population of langurs worldwide has almost halved. The main problem is that humans have hunted them and have also been actively clearing the forests where they live. Therefore, conservation of the species is so important, primarily due to the animals living in zoos.
"With such a small wild population, it's all the more important that we raise awareness of Francois langurs and work to preserve the species and their habitat," the OKC Zoo website quotes its Executive Director and CEO, Dwight Lawson. Considering that the 2024 report estimates the number of this species in North America at only 60 animals, two babies in two years is rather significant.
Image credits: alexander_safonov / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The restoration of the Francois' langur population in North America dates back to 1980, and now it has over 60 animals, while it started with only 4 of them
The history of the langur population in North America begins with two breeding pairs brought from China in 1980, and the birth of each baby is a real event for scientists. "We were able to partner with our Zoo veterinary team to closely monitor Pam's pregnancy via ultrasound, which was a great experience for both teams," says OKC Zoo's Curator of Primates, Shannon Charles-Ray.
And what are netizens saying? Well, netizens are absolutely delighted with the baby's unusual appearance, admiring photos of him posing with his happy parents. Given the color of his fur, some have suggested he's definitely a Weasley, a nod to the red-haired wizarding family from the Harry Potter books.
Other commenters, remembering that the baby was born quite shortly before Halloween, are suggesting he be named Pumpkin. At least, we've seen more than one or two comments with similar suggestions. So what name would you, our dear readers, give this wonderful monkey infant? Please feel free to share your naming ideas in the comments.
Netizens were simply in awe of the baby monkey's cute photos and gave numerous ideas for his future name
