KARACHI: Families visiting the zoo on Wednesday were pleasantly surprised to see a caged monkey mother taking care of a tiny baby clinging to her belly.

Unlike other animals that preferred to keep their young in hiding, away from any disturbance, the mother sitting on the concrete floor of her cage seemed to have no misgivings about visitors.

“This is the second birth of a rhesus monkey at the zoo in three years, bringing the total population of the species to 12. We have yet to name the baby,” explained senior vet and assistant director of zoo Dr Aamir Ismail.

Parents of both babies were the same while the last baby named John was now 18 months old, he added.

Currently, the zoo has about 17 primates, including a pair of chimpanzees, a lone green monkey and seven male and four female rhesus monkeys.

There is also a male langur (Semnopithecus entellus) that has been living alone at the zoo for the past seven years. It was handed over by wildlife department staff that captured the animal after it took refuge on a tree in the Nagarparkar town of Tharparkar district after crossing the border from India.

Asked about why the monkeys were deprived of an environment closed to their habitat, the zoo staff said that zoo cages were old and efforts were being made to upgrade them according to animal needs.

According to the staff, the mother will nurse the infant for at least six months. It takes a male rhesus monkey four years to get mature whereas a female is sexually active at about three years.

The species (Macaca mulatta) lives in a wide range of habitats, and shows a great deal of adaptability, according to the Animal Diversity Web.

“Some populations live in flatlands, while others, in northern India and Pakistan, live in the Himalayas at elevations up to 3,000 metres. These primates are able to acclimatise themselves to a variety of climatic extremes, from the hot, dry temperatures found in deserts, to cold winter temperatures which fall to well below the freezing point.

“In addition to living in the wilderness, some populations of the species have become accustomed to living alongside humans,” the website says.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2015

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