It’s a boy!

Published on 07 February 2020

Rockhampton Zoo this morning confirmed that the zoo’s newest member of the family, a baby chimpanzee born to mum Holly and Dad Alon on Monday, is a little boy.

Parks Committee Chair Councillor Cherie Rutherford shared the news via facebook by popping a balloon to reveal blue paper. You can watch that here.

“Having our new arrival is just so exciting! Earlier this week we shared the first gorgeous images of bub and today we are able to confirm that it is indeed a little boy,” Cr Rutherford said.

“We asked the community via facebook to let us know their guess on the sex of the baby, and it looks like we are a clever bunch as over 54% of people correctly thought our newest chimpanzee was indeed a boy.”

Councillor Rutherford confirmed that mum and baby, and the whole troop, are doing well.

“Of course at the moment we have fenced off the chimpanzee enclosure to give the troop time to bond and get used to the new member of the family, but I can confirm everything is going well.

“Our little boy has started feeding, Holly is taking really good care of him and I’m sure you can see from the footage we released earlier this week that they love a good snuggle!

“We have also been really touched by the number of people asking how Samantha is after the tragic stillbirth of her baby last year, and I am pleased to say she is doing well and has very much stepped up into Aunty mode. She is being very protective of Holly and the new baby, and we have also recently seen Capri sleeping with Samantha some nights. Samantha also regularly looks after Capri during the day.

“The birth of this little boy also means Rockhampton favourite Capri will have a little brother to play with. She has already introduced herself and regularly goes up to look at the little one - I am sure everyone just cannot wait to see them playing together and what mischief they will get up to!

“My thanks go out again to all those who have sent lovely messages, and to everyone for their patience as the chimp enclosure remains fenced off. We will let you know as soon as it reopens but we of course won’t do this until the troop is good and ready.”

Details of how the chimpanzee will be named, and how the community can get involved, will be released in the coming weeks.

Rockhampton Zoo is open 7 days a week and entry is free. The zoo is owned and operated by Rockhampton Regional Council.