Kinkajou, rare monkeys born at Dubai Zoo

The stork made another visit to Dubai Zoo last week, delivering three baby monkeys and one Kinkajou.

According to Dr Reza Khan, Head of the Zoo Section at the Public Parks and Horticulture Department of Dubai Municipality, the Dent's Monkey, formerly called Dent's Mona Monkey, gave birth to a baby female, taking the total number of this species at the zoo to seven, including four males and three females.

"The gestation period for the Dent's Monkey is six months and one baby is born at a time. Twins have not been reported. The baby is being suckled for nearly six months and aunts take care and feed the babies without any objection from the mother.

"In the zoo, the mother comes down to fetch the food leaving the baby with the aunt. By the end of the year, the babies become independent," he said.

"The Dubai Zoo received five Dent's Monkey as confiscated specimens from Dubai International Airport on July, 28, 1999. At that time, these were juveniles.

Later on, two were donated to the zoo by local residents in 2001. One of the females has already given birth to a baby and the second is expected to deliver within a month or so. The third female is a juvenile.

"The rest of the monkeys are male. Dubai Zoo has the world's largest collection of Dent's Monkeys. The related Mona Monkey is also present in only a handful of registered zoos in the world.

"As far as the indication goes, no zoo has so far kept and bred the Dent's Monkey."

Dent's Monkey, which is common in riverine forests of South West Sudan, Eastern Zaire and South-Eastern Central African Republic, is tree-dwelling.

"With long tails and strong gripping hands and feet with flexible wrists and ankles, they are very agile and fast. They can also leap long distances between branches. They depend on an unbroken, dense canopy for food and shelter.

"But they are found in a wide range of such dense growths: primary, secondary and gallery forests, including secondary growths near gardens and croplands.

The second birth witnessed by Dubai Zoo last week was of the Rhesus Macaque, which also belongs to the monkey family, and is found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and some parts of India and Bangladesh.

In the subcontinent, it is an endangered species.

Dr Khan said that Dubai Zoo got a batch of 18 baby monkeys confiscated from the Dubai Airport in 1991. "We have now separated the males and females to stop further breeding. Only this year, a pair was allowed to meet and the first was born last week, he said.

"The third birth was of a Green Monkey, which comes form Savannah country south of the Sahara Desert in Africa."

Dr Khan said it breeds regularly in Dubai Zoo. "We have in the past donated many specimens of this monkey to various zoos in Arabia and outside. Its gestation is six months and one baby per birth is the rule," he explained.

The fourth birth was a male Kinkajou. The Kinkajou lives deep in the forests of southern Mexico and Brazil. This is the first recorded breeding of the species in recognised zoos in the Middle East and North Africa, he said.

The gestation period for a Kinkajou is between 112 and 118 days. The female is very possessive of the baby and she carries it all the time. While sleeping, she keeps the baby in her coil.

"The Kinkajou has got a prehensile, or a gripping tail, that helps in climbing trees. It is a tree dweller and rarely descends to the ground. Basically fruit eaters, they also consume insects, bird eggs and young birds.

"The Kinkajou is a nocturnal mammal and spends the whole day curled up in a tree hollow or bow of a large tree."