A pregnant female chimpanzee at a zoo in Switzerland has adopted her sick sister’s baby, caring for the vulnerable infant under the watchful eyes of zookeepers, even after the birth of her own baby.
Touching photos show Kitoko with her baby boy, Sabaki, and baby niece, Sangala, hugging, playing, and nursing together.
Fifi did continue nursing Sangala until, two weeks after giving birth, but she became weak and developed a limp in her hind legs. Vets took her into intensive care but were perplexed as they didn’t find any root cause of her symptoms.
Meanwhile, Fifi’s sister, Kitoko, took over, caring for Sangala like her own. Even when her own baby, Sabaki, was born at the end of July, Kitoko continued to care for Sangala, appearing to ignore Sabaki initially. Encouraged by the group, and Sabaki’s father, 18-year-old Kume, Kitoko resumed primary care of her own baby and her sister’s at the same time.
Thanks to the resources available at Basel Zoo, the champion mom has been successfully parenting both cousins ever since.
Chimpanzees, said the zoo, depend on their mothers for the first six years of their life.
Losing a mother prematurely can radically lower a baby chimp’s survival odds unless other members of the group take over. Adoptions by maternal aunts of deceased mothers have the highest success rate.
At the time of writing, Basel Zoo veterinarians, alongside human gynecologists and cardiologists, are still working to establish a diagnosis for Fifi, who is improving but is still lame in her hind legs.
