Endangered gibbon baby born at Prague Zoo

The two-day-old silvery gibbon baby is the only new arrival of this species in the Czech Republic this year. The photo is from Sunday, a day after the baby was born. Author: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo.

“The silvery gibbon is an endangered species living solely on the Indonesian island of Java. It is only kept in small numbers in captivity, with just nine zoos in Europe that have a total of approximately 50 individuals,” explained Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo’s director.

The Prague troop of silvery gibbons has now grown to four members. As with other gibbon species, this one is monogamous. They form small family groups, which is why the baby’s older sibling, Abu-abu, who was born in 2018, lives with his parents.

The female, Alang Alang, and the male, Flip, are both sixteen years old and came to Prague Zoo in 2014. A year later they gave birth to the first ever silvery gibbon baby in the history of Czech and Slovak zoos. Called Silver Arrow, he is now six years old and this year he went to the zoo in Halle, Germany, as a future breeding male. The baby born on Saturday is the Prague breeding pair’s third offspring.

“The infant is doing well, the female, Alang Alang, is already an experienced mother and takes good care of it. Immediately after birth she cleaned it, kept it on her belly and nursed it. With regards to the fact that this species has no marked sexual dimorphism, we will only know its sex in a few years, after it has matured,” said Martin Vojáček, head keeper for primates.

Visitors to Prague Zoo can observe the attractive silvery primates on one of the islands within the Water World and Monkey Islands exhibit in the lower part of the zoo’s grounds.