Watch the video about the birth below.
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Being a witness to the welcoming of a new life in the world is always awe-inspiring, no matter what species that life is from. And that’s what a few visitors at England’s Chester Zoo experienced when they saw a Western African chimpanzee give birth right before their very eyes.
The zoo announced that the resulting baby was a healthy female that the lucky onlookers could only describe as “amazing” and “epic” to watch. The chimpanzee mother, named Alice, is a 27-year-old who gave birth after a seven-and-a-half-month pregnancy.
The baby, as yet unnamed, is bonding well with her mother and has been welcomed by the 21 other chimps in the zoo.
The baby’s birth also bodes well for Western African chimpanzees all over the world. This is because there are only about 18,000 Western African chimpanzees left in the wild, according to estimates by conservationists. This subspecies of chimpanzee was the first that was put on the list of critically endangered apes.
Mike Jordan, the zoo’s collections director, said in a statement: “Alice and her daughter have bonded well and she’s doing a wonderful job of caring for her so far. A new baby always creates lots of excitement and Alice has plenty of support from some of the other experienced moms in the group, who are all keen to lend a helping hand.”
“The youngster provides particular cause for celebration given the plight of chimpanzees in Africa. More chimpanzees are hunted for the illegal bushmeat trade than are born each year, causing populations to plummet in the wild.
Couple that with the fact that humans are destroying their habitats and it’s easy to see why these fantastic animals – one of our closest cousins – are being pushed towards extinction,” he added.