http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=ddc1ce79-cd9b-4ff6-b395-8139882aa3e7
Hand-raising baby gibbon a labour of love for zookeeper
After caesarean section, mother couldn't care for offspring

Jeff Holubitsky
The Edmonton Journal

Thursday, January 10, 2008

One of the most remarkable things about Penelope, the newest member of the Valley Zoo's gibbon troop, is that the tiny ape shares so many traits with human babies.

"There's definitely a lot of similarities between a human infant and an ape," zookeeper and surrogate mother Andi Sime said Wednesday, carrying the tiny month-old, white-handed gibbon in a sling. "I find it absolutely amazing."

Wrapped in a blanket, the gibbon clutched her favourite stuffed polar bear. Penelope is fed human milk formula from a bottle every three hours. She is not expected to sit or crawl for a couple of months. She wears diapers designed for premature human babies.

Penelope, a member of the ape family from the tropical rain forests of southeast Asia, was born by emergency caesarean section Dec. 9 with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The ape is strong and healthy and doesn't appear to have suffered any ill effects.

When the 24-year-old birth mother was unable to care for the baby due to the incision and a lack of milk, Sime stepped in to raise Penelope over the next six or seven months.

"So far it's been great, she comes with me to work, she sleeps beside me in her crib, she eats every three hours and she is fun to have around," Sime said. "She's really sweet."

Penelope has made steady progress and her weight has increased from 401 grams at birth to 551 grams. She will weigh about seven to eight kilograms when full grown. Zoo officials don't know when Penelope will rejoin her real mother, Julia, her father, Chan, and five-year-old brother, Bandit, or when she'll be shown to the public. She will likely be weaned between the ages of one to two years and remain with her family group for five or six years. Bandit is now due to move on to another zoo.

"We have to teach her how to be a gibbon," Sime said. "But Julia is a good mom and I'm sure she'll welcome Penelope back when the time comes."

Julia gave birth to six offspring before Penelope.

There are an estimated 79,000 gibbons left in the wild, down from several hundred thousand a half century ago.

Raising an animal by hand "is never the first option," Sime said. "It is always better to be raised by the parent.

"It will be harder for her but it is important to get her around gibbons as soon as possible so she can learn little nuances about their social structure."

Jholubitsky@thejournal.canwest.com