KATHMANDU: The Central Zoo in Lalitpur woke up to good news this morning. It welcomed a newmember in the Siamang’s (banmanchhe in local parlance) family. A baby was born to the couple last evening.

“The mother and baby are doing fine,” said Dr Jeevan Thapa, an in-house

veterinarian at the Central Zoo. However, its elder sibling had met a premature death nine months after its birth in 2007.

The Saimang couple has been housed in the Central Zoo since 2001 when the Malaysian government had gifted the duo as part of the animal exchange programme between the two Asian nations. Nepal, in turn, had presented two cranes.

Dr Thapa exuded confidence that the new-born would pull through. “The first baby wasn’t too healthy. Parental care is the key for the baby to survive. The new-born weighs around a kg,” he said. “The Siamangs are one of the star attractions in the zoo, regaling the visitors with its melodious choir singing,” added the veterinarian.

Saimang, a tailless, arboreal black-furred gibbon are found in Barisan mountains in Sumatra (Indonesia), the upper reaches in the Malay peninsula and the south of the Perak River in Malaysia. Studies conducted in Sumatra revealed that the Siamang’s natural habitat is lowland tropical forest — between 500m and 1,000m above sea level.

Zoo-keeper Hari Krishna Shrestha maintained that the species is omnivorous. Its diet largely comprises leaves, fruits, flowers and insects. “The gestation period is around seven months. It gives birth to a single baby at a time. While, the life span is around 40 years,”

explained Shrestha.

According to the zoo authorities, the male Siamang weighs 18 kg, while the

female is 19 kg. The Red Book of the International Union for Nature Conservation classifies the animal as an endangered species.

Experts are alarmed at the loss of its natural habitat due to deforestation, wildfire, human encroachment and rampant poaching. Usually, the Siamang lives in a pack of around six, moving around in a 23-hectare area in its natural habitat.