NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – An abandoned bush baby and a yellow baboon have formed an unlikely companionship at an animal orphanage in Nairobi.
The six-month-old female baboon, abandoned by its family in Maralal in Northern Kenya, is taking care of the three-month-old bush baby that was also abandoned by its family in central Kenya.
Charles Musyoki, a senior scientist for species and conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service, said Friday it is likely that the animals formed the bond in order to cope in the new environment at the animal orphanage.
“This is a situation where two individuals are basically in need of each other because they need the bond to survive in the absence of their parents and their grouping. Therefore when both find themselves in such a situation they tend to bond and make friendships,” Musyoki said.
He said the union between the two species is a rare occurrence that was last recorded in Kenya in 2002, when a lioness adopted and nurtured a young oryx, a large antelope that lions normally hunt.
Musyoki said the two animals would not have had such a relationship in the wild. The yellow baboon is active during the day and sleeps at night, while the bush baby is a nocturnal animal, he said.
“In the natural world they are very separated in terms of time,” Musyoki said, adding that there is now a bond “in this captive environment because the two animals which are in distress, need each other for companionship, for friendship and play.”
The two animals will have to be separated as they become older, he said.
NAIROBI – Clinging to the under-belly of a baboon, Gakii, a 3-month-old orphaned bush baby has plumped for an unlikely surrogate-mother.
In the grounds of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage, the duo cavort around in each others’ arms, drink milk out of the same bowl and poke mischievously at a Reuters television camera.
“This is not normal. It has not happened here and I guess it has not happened anywhere else,” said Edward Kariuki, a warden at the animal home in the Kenyan capital.
Kenya, however, has a history of unlikely cases of fostering among orphaned animals.
In 2004, a giant tortoise adopted and became an inseparable friend to a baby hippo washed out to sea off the coast of Kenya in the aftermath of the southeast Asia Tsunami. The pair became an Internet sensation.
Two years earlier, a full-grown lioness baffled experts in the east African country when she adopted a baby oryx — a kind of antelope normally deemed a tasty morsel by the predators.
(Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Richard Lough)
Kenyan baboon plays mother to bush baby
TOM ODULA
Published: Yesterday
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – An abandoned bush baby and a yellow baboon have formed an unlikely companionship at an animal orphanage in Nairobi.
The six-month-old female baboon, abandoned by its family in Maralal in Northern Kenya, is taking care of the three-month-old bush baby that was also abandoned by its family in central Kenya.
Charles Musyoki, a senior scientist for species and conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service, said Friday it is likely that the animals formed the bond in order to cope in the new environment at the animal orphanage.
“This is a situation where two individuals are basically in need of each other because they need the bond to survive in the absence of their parents and their grouping. Therefore when both find themselves in such a situation they tend to bond and make friendships,” Musyoki said.
He said the union between the two species is a rare occurrence that was last recorded in Kenya in 2002, when a lioness adopted and nurtured a young oryx, a large antelope that lions normally hunt.
Musyoki said the two animals would not have had such a relationship in the wild. The yellow baboon is active during the day and sleeps at night, while the bush baby is a nocturnal animal, he said.
“In the natural world they are very separated in terms of time,” Musyoki said, adding that there is now a bond “in this captive environment because the two animals which are in distress, need each other for companionship, for friendship and play.”
The two animals will have to be separated as they become older, he said.
© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Kenyan baboon adopts bush baby
By Sahra Abdi, REUTERS
NAIROBI – Clinging to the under-belly of a baboon, Gakii, a 3-month-old orphaned bush baby has plumped for an unlikely surrogate-mother.
In the grounds of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage, the duo cavort around in each others’ arms, drink milk out of the same bowl and poke mischievously at a Reuters television camera.
“This is not normal. It has not happened here and I guess it has not happened anywhere else,” said Edward Kariuki, a warden at the animal home in the Kenyan capital.
Kenya, however, has a history of unlikely cases of fostering among orphaned animals.
In 2004, a giant tortoise adopted and became an inseparable friend to a baby hippo washed out to sea off the coast of Kenya in the aftermath of the southeast Asia Tsunami. The pair became an Internet sensation.
Two years earlier, a full-grown lioness baffled experts in the east African country when she adopted a baby oryx — a kind of antelope normally deemed a tasty morsel by the predators.
(Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Richard Lough)
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