This is the moment two tiny endangered chimpanzee twins with their umbilical cords still attached hug their mother after being born in a Spanish zoo.
The birth took place in the Bioparc zoo in the city of Valencia in the eastern Spanish region of the same name when Malin, one of the female chimpanzees living in the zoo, went into labour.
Video Credit: CEN/Bioparc Valencia
The zookeepers created a space in one of the interior enclosures for Malin to give birth and she had twins, with the tiny chimps being seen in the video with their respective umbilical cords still attached.
In the video, Malin can be seen holding her tiny babies as they suckle on her breasts and the caring mother then lies down and cleans her offspring.
The zoo report that there were no complication in the birth and the twins are in a stable condition. Zookeepers are monitoring the chimps’ condition and the twins are yet to be named as their gender is still unclear.
The twin Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) belong to a species listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The group of chimpanzees living in the zoo consists of male Moreno, 31, and five females: Malin, 29, Py, 15, who were brought from Sweden, and three sisters from Fuengirola, Spain: Eva, 23, Natalia, 15 and Noelia, 11.
The last birth in the group came seven months ago when Noelia gave birth to Coco.
Bioparc are working on a project of preservation of the species with the Jane Goodall Institute.
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
