Meet our new Baby Snow Monkey

The Buffalo Zoo’s latest addition, a baby Japanese macaque, is now on exhibit at the Buffalo Zoo.

The baby was born to 16 year old mother, Debbi, on August 30. The baby’s father is eight-year-old Ketu, who has had one other offspring. This baby is Debbi’s fourth.

Debbi is proving to be a nurturing and protective mother. Keepers have not yet been able to get close enough to determine the baby’s gender.

Debbi the snow monkey with her baby.

Debbi and her baby are on exhibit daily in the Zoo’s Vanishing Animals Exhibit starting at 3 p.m.

Japanese macaques are often referred to as snow monkeys because their natural habitat is in the snowy mountain regions of Japan. The wild population of snow monkeys is threatened by the replacement of natural forests in Japan with lumber plantations and other developments.

Baby Monkey from Buffalo Zoo is Hand Raised in Des Moines

A baby Japanese macaque who was abandoned by his mother at the Buffalo Zoo is being hand-raised by keepers at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa.

The baby, named Nikko, was born on June 5 at the Buffalo Zoo. Shortly after his birth, keepers noticed that his mother, six-year-old Yuki was not holding him. This indicated that the first-time-mom may not be caring for her newborn properly. Keeper staff retrieved the baby to warm him and give him fluids, and make sure he was healthy. After multiple attempts to reunite mother and baby, Zoo staff determined that the baby’s best chance at survival was to be hand-raised.

Nikko the Japanese macaque. Image courtesy of the Blank Park Zoo.

After reaching out to multiple Zoos with experience hand-raising Japanese macaques, officials in Buffalo learned that the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines had a baby born on the same day under similar circumstances. Keepers there agreed to raise the baby from Buffalo along with their newborn, a female named Anika.

On June 7, just two days after Nikko’s birth, a team of keepers from the Buffalo Zoo drove to Indiana to meet with a team from the Blank Park Zoo and hand-delivered Nikko to his new keepers.

Blank Park Zoo staff reports that Nikko is thriving in his new home with his surrogate sister Anika, and a third baby female who was born on June 16.

The babies are not yet on exhibit for the public, so officials at the Blank Park Zoo have set up a live webcam feed where viewers can watch the macaques play and grow over the next few weeks.

Watch live streaming video from wild_zoo_tv at livestream.com