Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ENGLAND: A critically endangered primate known as the dancing lemur due to how it moves has been bred for the first time in Europe, according to a zoo official in Cheshire, England.
The birth of Coquerel’s sifaka was described as a “landmark moment for the species” by Chester Zoo. According to a representative, the “precious youngster” was delivered to parents Beatrice and Elliot 18 months after the couple relocated from the United States. According to Mammals curator Mark Brayshaw, both mother and baby were “doing great,” according to Mammals curator Mark Brayshaw. The species was only found in the wild in the north-western treetops of Madagascar and has declined by 80% in the last 30 years due to widespread deforestation.
Zoo representatives
They are distinguished from other lemurs by how they move, and they maintain an upright posture and spring side to side along the ground on their back legs. The primates are critically endangered in the wild, according to the zoo representative, and the family trio at Chester represented nearly half of the seven Coquerel’s sifakas cared for in Europe. The new arrival weighed 4oz (119g) and would cling to its mother’s belly “for several weeks, before riding on her back like a backpack until around six months old,” according to the researchers.
Staff would decide the sex of the tiny primate, born in December, “once it starts to branch out and explore on its own,” they added. Brayshaw predicted that “this bright-eyed baby will be bouncing from tree to tree just like its family members” in no time. The birth was described as a “true landmark moment for conservation” by Mike Jordan, the zoo’s director of animals and plants. He said it had “kickstarted” the European breeding programme for the organisms, which could be “the lifeboat that inhibits them from becoming wiped out completely”.
