Columbian black spider monkey born
20 December 2007 | 17:02
RODDY ASHWORTH
COLCHESTER Zoo's baby-boom is continuing unabated - with the latest addition to its collection being a Colombian black spider monkey.
It was born into the Essex attraction's main group of spider monkeys on Sunday night to mother Cheekaboo and father Heineken.
Despite being born completely bald, the baby seems to be progressing excellently and withstanding the cold winter weather well.
The spider monkeys are part of a European Endangered Species Programme as they are threatened by a rapidly increasing habitat loss in the Amazon Forest.
They require a very high level of paternal care and so female adults only give birth to a few offspring in their lifetime, making their population recovery in the wild very difficult.
The zoo's common squirrel monkeys have also been successful breeders this year with so many new babies some of them are now destined for collections elsewhere.
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