Baby Velu is first to be successfully reared in Scotland for 15 years
A new baby chimpanzee - the first to be successfully reared in Scotland in 15 years - has made his public debut at Edinburgh Zoo.
Velu, a baby boy born to mum Heleen on June 24, lives in the Budongo Trail exhibit at the Zoo and is particularly special as he is a pure Western chimpanzee, a subspecies of the common chimpanzee that is listed as an Endangered species.
Heleen was one of nine chimpanzees who arrived at Edinburgh from the Netherlands in 2010. The animals originally started life in a research laboratory before being re-homed in a Dutch safari park and then moving to Edinburgh to live in one of the world's most innovative and interactive chimp enclosures.
Sophie Pearson, Team Leader for the Budongo Trail, that is home to 18 other chimpanzees, said; "We are delighted with the arrival and successful integration of Velu into our chimpanzee group. Still very young, Velu will look like a baby for another five years or so. He currently has a beautiful pale, pinky-coloured face which will darken as he gets older and has a mass of spiky hair. His father is either 38-year-old Louis or 21-year-old Rene, two of the males in our group. Later on we will do a paternity test to confirm.
"At Edinburgh Zoo we are extremely proud that Heleen is successfully raising Velu and that he has been accepted into the group. Chimpanzees learn from experience – they see their mothers and other group members give birth and raise youngsters – but unfortunately we suspect that Heleen did not have this experience in the earlier part of her life. However, after a tricky start, Heleen is coping extremely well and developing into a great mother - she is nursing, grooming and protecting her baby.
“Chimpanzee groups are complex. As a species they are volatile and they have extremely complex social hierarchies. After the birth, we slowly integrated Heleen and her baby back into the main chimpanzee group – starting first with other females and her closest male allies, then building up to them both going back into the main group. This has been successful to date and, although chimpanzee babies are always vulnerable, we are confident Heleen is fully integrated back into the group and has a lot of support from her chimp friends.
“Hand rearing a chimpanzee has a huge impact on the individual as they are extremely intelligent with complex needs; a hand reared chimp may in fact never fully be an independent chimp. With this in mind, keepers intervened as little as possible - Velu had to be bottle fed by keepers for a few days at the beginning of his life because Heleen put him down and showed little interest in caring for him herself. However, he was never out of Heleen’s sight and she was able to watch him being fed until she decided she wanted to take him back, which she did to everyone’s delight."
The Budongo Trail exhibit is designed to reflect the rainforest of West and Central Africa - the chimpanzees natural habitat - with three 'pods' which vary in temperature, light and humidity and an outdoor climbing and vegetation area all linked by bridges, to allow free roaming.
Image (C) Edinburgh Zoo
