Stuttgart Wilhelma
Bonobo great-grandmother gives birth to cubs
The little baby monkey cuddles up to his mother Chipita. photo
© Birger Meierjohann/Wilhelma Stuttgart/dpa
Her last birth was almost 20 years ago – now Bonobo lady Chipita has brought offspring for the third time in Stuttgart’s Wilhelma. But who is the father of the little monkey?
At the ripe old age of more than 30, a female bonobo gave birth to a young one in Stuttgart’s Wilhelma. Chipita last had offspring almost 20 years ago, as the zoo announced. Chipita is now a great-grandmother of two. Her third baby after Mixi (2001) and Kasai (2004) was born on March 5th. The gender of the cub is still unknown as it clings to its mother around the clock.
It is also unclear who the father is. “Paternity could be determined using a hair sample – but there’s no rush,” said Kerstin Ludmann, curator of great apes at Wilhelma, according to the statement. For breeding, however, it is important to know at some point whose genes the young animal carries.
Due to her turbulent history, Chipita’s exact age is not known. In 1996, unknown people left her in a box in front of the entrance to the zoo in the Portuguese capital Lisbon. It is believed that she was smuggled into Portugal via Angola. Since no zoo in Portugal kept bonobos, they were included in the European conservation breeding program Stuttgart came.