Posted on 02/07/2023 11:36:41 AM PST by Red Badger
Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Japanese zoo said it has solved the mystery of a gibbon became pregnant while living in isolation -- and a tiny hole in a board is to blame.
Zookeepers at Kujukushima Zoo and Botanical Garden Mori Kirara in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, said they were surprised when a lar gibbon named Momo gave birth in February 2021, as the ape had been living in her own enclosure without any males present.
Officials said Momo was protective of her offspring, so it was nearly two years before they were able to collect enough stool and excrement samples from the mother and baby to perform DNA tests.
The father of the male baby was found to be Itou, a 34-year-old agile gibbon. Zookeepers said the two apes were never on display together, but they discovered that the partition between Momo's exhibit and the back yard where Itou was kept while off-display had a perforated board with holes about 9 millimeters (.35 inches) in diameter.
Officials said they now believe the apes managed to mate through one of the holes.
The board has now been replaced by a solid steel plate. Officials said they are now planning to attempt to introduce Itou and Momo officially so they and their child can live as a family.
He proved size matters.
Sure his name wasn’t Laz?
A third of an inch is a pretty small worm hole even for him.
Probably his cousin.................
Chastity cage.
LOL
Several years ago one of our state’s youth prisons was divided with a chain-link fence...one side for males, the other for females. The girls got pregnant.
If you give a gorilla a screwdriver, he will play with it for few minutes and get bored with it, and ignore it. If you give it to a chimp, he will stab another chimp. If you give it to an orangutan, he will hide it and dissemble the cage when you are not looking.
... but never, ever, let a gibbon get his paws on one. Unless you want a visit from the gibbon stork.
And Momo lose her welfare benefits? No way; it's just not done in the feral community.
Did the guards give DNA samples? I mean to the investigators.
Itou to Momo: “No teeth!”
They need to electrify the fence.
Reminds me of the Volkswagon Bug days.
Shoot! My money was on ‘Florida Man’ as the Proud Papa. :(
Unfortunately, we have no native monkeys in Florida...............
Life will find a way.
“...a perforated board with holes...”
When there’s a hole, there’s a way.
Nature, uh, finds a way.
I’ve been there and your post is IN NO WAY racist.
:: Obama crept in overnight ::
Or, Big Myke.
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