Endangered gibbon born at Lincoln Park Zoo

Officials of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo are excited over the institution’s newest resident.

Zoo officials on Monday announced the birth of a white-cheeked gibbon, a small Southeast Asian ape that’s endangered because of habitat loss and poaching.

The gibbon was born Aug. 16 and is the fourth offspring for father, Caruso, and mother, Burma. They’re mating as part of the Gibbon Species Survival Program.

Zoo curators don’t know the sex of the newborn gibbon.

Maureen Leahy is the zoo’s curator of primates. She says Burma is holding the baby close and acting like a good mother.

White-cheeked gibbons have long arms used to hang and swing from branch to branch. Infants are born with tan fur that darkens to black within two years. Males stay black; females eventually turn tan.