A Gibbon Who Lived Alone in Her Cage Had a Baby. Japanese Zookeepers Finally Know How

CNN ^ | Fri February 10, 2023 | Xiaofei Xu, Philip Wang and Junko Ogura

[nickcarraway]

Japanese zookeepers believe they have solved the mystery of how a gibbon became pregnant despite living alone in her cage.

Momo, a 12-year-old white-handed gibbon, shocked her keepers at the Kujukushima Zoo and Botanical Garden in Nagasaki in February 2021 when she gave birth despite having no known male companionship.

Now two years later, following a DNA test on her baby, the zoo has worked out who the father is – and even has a theory about how the gibbons mated. The test showed the father to be Itō, a 34-year-old agile gibbon, who was in an adjacent enclosure to Momo around the time she became pregnant.

[ExGeeEye]

Life finds a way.

[norcal joe]

Ok, I read the CNN article so others wouldn't have to:

The zoo told CNN on Friday it believed that Momo and Itō had managed to mate through a small hole in a steel plate between their enclosures. The hole measured about 9 millimeters (0.3 inch) in diameter.

[Hyman Roth]

I didn’t know Bill Gibbons lived in a zoo.

[Bigg Red]

The article also says these animals are endangered, so why weren’t these dopes trying facilitated reproduction?

[Bigg Red]

Most apes and monkeys are ugly, but these guys are cute.

[PIF]

why weren’t these dopes trying facilitated reproduction?
—
The rarer they are the more $$ they take in. If it had not gotten so much publicity, they would likely have aborted the fetus.

[OrioleFan]

Hunter???

[nickcarraway]

How do you think he gets that guitar sound?

[nickcarraway]

LOL. So wrong.

[Sacajaweau]

I think Pandas RENT for a million a year.

[gundog]

[laplata]

Thanks.

[laplata]

Lol

[EQAndyBuzz]

“ I didn’t know Bill Gibbons lived in a zoo.”

It could have been Euell Gibbons.

[Wilderness Conservative]

I wonder if the guy who stole 2 monkeys from a zoo in Texas was in Japan at the time of conception.

[rlmorel]

Here we go!

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Actually, they think that WE wre ugly.

[KC_Conspirator]

No kidding. What a bunch of dopes.

Instead they had to do it through a gibbon glory hole.

[rlmorel]

Hahaha...now we know!