This gibbon became pregnant while living in isolation. How is that possible? – National | 24CA News

A Japanese zoo believes they’ve lastly solved the thriller of how their feminine gibbon grew to become pregnant whereas residing alone in her enclosure.

The puzzle dates again to February 2021, when Momo, a 12-year-old white-handed gibbon on the Saikai National Park Kujukushima Zoo & Botanical Garden, shocked her keepers by giving delivery.

But how? Momo lived individually from the zoo’s different male primates, reviews Japanese publication Mainichi, their cages separated by bars and jagged rooster wire. Although the gibbons are placed on show for the general public, at no time would Momo have been uncovered to an amorous male.

Could or not it’s a case of immaculate conception?

Looking for a solution, zookeepers first collected stool and fur samples from her child, which wasn’t a straightforward feat.

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“It took us two years to figure it out because we couldn’t get close enough to collect samples — she was very protective of her child,” Jun Yamano, the zoo superintendent, informed Vice.

It turned out the newborn’s father was, certainly, one of many neighbouring apes — a 34-year-old agile gibbon by the of Itoh.

They didn’t have video surveillance to depend on, so that they turned to the subsequent logical step: inspecting their enclosures for any safety flaws that may enable the gibbons to have bodily contact.

That’s the place they solved the thriller: small holes within the wall of the exhibition space proper in entrance of Momo’s cage. Measuring lower than one centimetre extensive, the holes within the perforated partition most likely allowed the conception.

“We think it’s very likely that on one of the days that Itoh was in the exhibition space, they copulated through a hole,” zoo superintendent Jun Yamano informed Vice.

Now that Momo and Itoh have gotten their “monkey business” out of the way in which, and welcomed new life into the world, the zoo says they’ve changed the perforated wall with a metal plate. They additionally stated they’ll attempt to transfer Itoh in with Momo and the newborn.

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