Each new arrival of an endangered species is a step towards protecting a species from extinction.
Chester Zoo is now celebrating the birth of a western chimpanzee baby, an endangered species and the rarest chimpanzee species on the planet.
British conservation and education charity center, Chester Zoo announced that female chimpanzee Jeezy gave birth to a newborn male on December 9.
According to a press release, the zoo’s great ape expert said the newcomer was “healthy” and spent the first few weeks of his life with his mother. Newborn babies are also cared for by other members of the zoo’s 22-strong chimpanzee squad.
The zoo has a tradition of naming baby chimpanzees after famous rock and pop stars. However, they haven’t yet named this baby. Previous chimpanzees were named Dylan (as in Bob Dylan), Alice (Cooper), and Annie (Lenox).
Western chimpanzees are the rarest chimpanzee species on the planet today and are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are now only 18,000 of these chimpanzees left in the wild.
Small populations are still found in places like Senegal and Ghana. But they are extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Togo.
