Howletts Wild Animal Park First gelada born

[kiang]

A first for Howletts, a gelada was born around 5 weeks ago, still unsexed and unnamed, the baby is being raised by its mother, who has a history of killing newborns.

BBC News - First Gelada baboon born at Howletts

 

[Jordan-Jaguar97]

Good news but lets not get our hopes up how many has the mother had?

 

[Pertinax]

According to the name this is is the female from Colchester, not the original one from France. Both seem to have the same history though. If she's raised this baby to 5 weeks she is very likely to rear it herself now. Infanticide nearly always occurs at birth or soon after. The sudden improvement in her maternal behaviour may be due to lessened stress, perhaps due to the very large enclosure at Howletts(its huge).

 

[mhale]

Sereba is the female who moved from Colchester (see the Gelada Family Tree taken 29th August 2009).

 

[Pertinax]

So do both the females have a similar history?- I assumed it was the original female from Le Pal as the description certainly fitted her past history. I've changed what I said above in that case... So that's probably why Colchester let them have that particular female.