It's a Baby Boom at the Philadelphia Zoo's Primate Reserve
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Zoo is welcoming a handful of new babies.
Tammy Schmidt, primate curator at the zoo, says they seem to be experiencing a bit of an animal baby boom.
"We are -- with some of our cutest primates ever," she notes. "Not only do we have a lovely baby boy gibbon over at Peco Primate Reserve (top photo), but down in our cheetah run area, where we have our black-and-white colobus monkeys, they've each had a baby."
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"We have found the new moms with four gorgeous little, white babies that are ashy now -- because they start white and develop the adult color of the black mantling and the beautiful white tail," Schmidt says.
And Schmidt says that with the addition of four new colobus monkeys, that group has nearly doubled its size in two months.
"They live in 'troops' of up to 25," she explains. "So they were a small group of five, now they're a nice group of nine. So it's incredible."
The unnamed baby gibbon joins mom, dad, and older brother Leo.
Hear the extended interview in this CBS Philly podcast (runs 7:39)...
Tammy Schmidt
The zoo will be holding a naming contest on Facebook for the newest gibbon.
