VENEZUELA: Caracas' El Pinar Zoo shows off its newest inhabitants, a baby tapir and baby baboon

Record ID: 805080

  • Title: VENEZUELA: Caracas' El Pinar Zoo shows off its newest inhabitants, a baby tapir and baby baboon
  • Date: 15th October 2005
  • Summary: BABY PAPION MONKEY PLAYING
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAB635D2Y0OUBGXX67HV8B4NYNC
  • Story Text: The El Pinar zoo in Caracas is showing off its newest arrivals, a two-month old tapir, and a baby baboon, the latest addition to the zoo's family of over 500 animals. The baby tapir has been named Secundino because he is his mother Chacha's second cub. At two months, this grey bundle with white markings already eats on his own. Tapirs have heavy, thick bodies with short legs and big, heads and long snouts. They are generally herbivores, with their natural habitat being tropical forests close to rivers and lakes. According to the director of El Pinar Zoo Israel Canizales, tapirs were once commonplace in Venezuela, but their population has greatly diminished. "Originally it had a really wide distribution practically all over the country, but after the 70s the population began to be reduced due to the massive use of its meat and the deforestation there was in the central and northern areas of Venezuela, leaving it restricted to the area south of the Orinoco river," he said. Tapir babies usually weigh about 15 to 25 pounds at birth, but gain about a pound a day during their first year. The zoo's other new addition is a female baboon, who has yet to be named. Born two months ago, this new arrival is being taken care of by her over-protective mother, who is careful to shield her from visitors who approach the cage. Adult male baboons weigh up to 20 kilos, with a layer of grey hairs on their backs, shoulders and chests. Females colour. The skin on their face is usually pink or red in colour. Baboons usually give birth to one cub per year. "It's a female baboon. It's two months old. It's an African species. However, this species has been maintained in the zoo for a long time, and this is the successful birth after a long time," explained Canizales. The baboon's natural habitat is in dry, rocky areas. They are found in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Somalia, the Sudan coast and in southeastern Arabia.
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