(ORDO NEWS) — A Japanese zoo has revealed the mystery of how a female gibbon in a solitary enclosure got pregnant. And it’s not the miracle of the Immaculate Conception…
No miracles – everything is much more prosaic
According to Vice, in February 2021, the rangers of the Saikai Kujukushima National Park in Japan were extremely surprised when a 12-year-old female Momo gibbon gave birth to a cub.
However, this could not happen in any way – she sat in an isolated enclosure for a long time…
Paternity DNA test
In 2022, zookeepers set out to unravel the mystery by collecting the hair and feces of Momo, her cub, and four suspected males that lived nearby.
The samples were sent to Kyoto University for DNA analysis.
At the end of January 2023, the zoo revealed the identity of the father – it turned out to be 34-year-old gibbon Ito.
But how did conception happen?
It turns out that the animals made contact through a hole in the wall with a diameter of nine millimeters.
The zoo has no physical evidence, such as CCTV footage, but zookeepers say this is the only way the two gibbons can mate.
Now that hole in the wall is closed…
Surprisingly, in the wild, gibbons choose their mates based on their appearance, social behavior, and vocalization. However, none of the staff noticed how Ito was courting Momo.
Zookeepers are currently planning to put the couple in the same enclosure so they can live “together as one family.”
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