A 12-day-old male Hamadryas Baboon, the large bodied primates, has been the focus of attention at the Mysuru zoo lately. The little monkey is being hand-reared by zoo keepers after its mother rejected it soon after its birth. The zoo took up the challenge of hand-rearing the baby baboon from day one.
The animal keepers have mastered the art of hand-rearing newborn animals after being in close association with the animals since decades. The young primate is under the round-the-clock care and monitoring of the keepers, who feed it milk using bottles once in two hours.
Interestingly, a soft toy resembling a primate has been giving it “motherly company”. “The young baboon thinks the soft toy is its mother. It hugs the toy and wants to be with it. When newborn primates are dumped by their mothers, we tend to adopt this method to prevent psychological stress on them,” explained Ramesh, chief veterinarian and assistant director of the zoo.
ADVERTISEMENT
The zoo has two male and female baboons each.
The baby baboon was born on April 4. Within a few hours, the mother rejected to feed it, forcing the zoo authorities to take up hand-rearing. Two months ago, a female Hamadryas Baboon too rejected young one. However, it later accepted it and started feeding. The mother was immediately put on health supplements also.
The young baboon will be hand-reared for another two months and steps will be taken thereafter to reunite it with its mother, Dr. Ramesh said.
ADVERTISEMENT