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Life

28th Dec 2019

Fota Wildlife want your help in naming two new endangered monkey babies

Rory Cashin

fota island

Look how cute!

This week, the Fota Wildlife Park in Cork announced the birth of two Lion-tailed macaque babies.

The folk at Fota Wildlife took to Twitter for the happy occasion:

“We are delighted to announce two new baby male Lion-tailed macaques. Classified endangered by IUCN. Pop in and visit them and new parents – the Dad Mauzer and mothers Kelly and Lizzy!”

The lion-tailed macaque ranks among the rarest and most threatened primate species in the world, and they are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.

Macaques live in groups of between 10 and 20, with one dominant male taking responsibility for leading the entire troop.

Teresa Power, Lead Ranger said about the births: “The two new babies at Fota are settling in really well and are fussed over and protected by the whole troop, in fact it is common to see a younger female kidnap a baby for a little while to practise her mothering skills as this is how they learn.

“Lizzy is one of our main breeding females and already has three daughters in the group while this is Kelly’s first baby. Neither baby has a name yet and we are calling on the public to help us name them both.”

Fota Wildlife are looking for the public to help name the two new arrivals, and you can do so by heading to the Fota Wildlife blog right here.

All images via Fota Island Twitter

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