Primate conservationists are celebrating the birth of one of the world’s rarest chimpanzees at Chester Zoo.
New mum ZeeZee – a critically endangered Western chimpanzee - safely delivered the tiny baby boy on 9 December 2022 following an eight month pregnancy. Great ape experts at the conservation zoo have revealed that the new male arrival is in good health and has spent the first few weeks of life bonding with mum and the rest of the 22-strong troop.
In what is a long-standing tradition among conservationists, the youngster will be named after a rockstar or famous pop icon to help boost the profile of the highly threatened species.
As few as just 18,000 Western chimpanzees remain across Africa and it is the first subspecies of chimpanzee to ever be declared critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Primatologists say that the birth gives further ‘hope’ to efforts to ensure the long-term survival of the species.
The apes are under huge threat in the wild as a result of hunting for the illegal bush meat trade, diseases spread by humans and extensive habitat loss and forest destruction across West Africa. Small populations of the Western chimpanzee are still found ranging from Senegal to Ghana in West Africa – but have sadly become extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo.
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