I don't see any reason to doubt it but calling it 'love' is newspaper sensation wording. Young animals can be inprinted to virtually anything if they don't get a natural contact like goslings that become attached to a human or the well known experiment where chickens become attached to a box. Social intelligent animals like primates are the most extreme and young ones will always attempt to find a 'replacement mother' if their real motherfigure isn't there. Depending on how early it happens it almost always results in big issues later because of identity problems. That's why some zoos let nature take its course (instead of hand raising by humans) when young animals are abandoned by their mother.
