Happy 1st lunar birthday to Nanjing’s newest primate! A recent addition to the city’s family is being celebrated for being “two firsts”; China’s first birth of a Siamang gibbon by cesarean section and Nanjing Hongshan Zoo’s first Siamang reproduction.
Lucky, as the young fellow has been named, was born on 27 December, 2020, making him 1-month old yesterday by the lunar calendar. While his mother remains healthy, albeit in a little pain and lacking sufficient milk for Lucky’s needs, the little gibbon is growing vigorously.
Weighing in at 650 grams at birth, Lucky already now tips the scales at 828 grams. At birth he had four teeth, a number he has doubled in just a month. Lucky’s mother, Purba, fell pregnant last year giving Lucky the required 7 months of gestation, after a courtship with Lucky’s father, Bobi.
Siamang gibbons are unique for their large throat pouch, common to both males and females, which allows them to make unusually loud calls. For Siamangs that feel congenial with each other, their calls will be even louder.
That Siamangs are also unusual in their arms being longer than their legs, giving them a gangling appearance, was the reason for the complication with Lucky’s birth. His parents living at the Gaochun Slow City branch of Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo, almost 2-hours distant by car, presented an additional challenge.
While a zookeeper noticed no abnormality with Purba at 08:00 on 27 December, at 09:00 they observed a protuberance in Purba’s lower body, dubbed a “small arm”. Judging that she was about to give birth with an abnormal fetal position, professional help was immediately summoned.
En route, the veterinary team communicated by telephone with the Gaochun branch staff to make advance preparations for isolation, midwifery and a possible birth by cesarean section, as well as the necessary nursery materials.
Upon their arrival at 11:30, the team first attempted to correct the fetal position, but were foiled by Lucky’s lengthy arms. After an operation lasting 70 minutes, both mother and son were out of danger, while the actual extraction of the fetus took a mere 10 minutes, reports Jiangsu TV.
Since his birth, Lucky has been reared on a diet of his mother’s somewhat limited milk supply, supplemented with artificial milk powder.
And those excessively long arms? Lucky’s “small” arms were 14 cm long at birth; now he sports upper limbs some 18 cm in length, not bad for a 1-month old.
