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http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7637297p-8543728c.html

Baby Siamang gibbon debuts at zoo 

By Louis Galvan
The Fresno Bee
(Published Friday, October 24, 2003, 5:41 AM)
 
A 1-month-old Siamang gibbon born at the Chaffee Zoo faced the public for the 
first time
Thursday and now can be seen at selected times.
Dale Thompson, the general curator at the zoo, said the ape was very weak 
when it was
born Sept. 25 and was kept from the exhibit until it could build strength.

Strength was built in part, he said, with a special milk formula.

"It is still being supplemented, but we feel it is well enough to go on 
exhibit," said
Thompson.

The male ape has not been named, but zoo staffers are working on that, 
Thompson said.

The baby is the second offspring of the zoo's resident Siamang gibbons. 
Mother Lottie is
18 years old; father Biong is 28 years old. Brother Bunyi was born 61/2 years 
ago.

Thompson said Bunyi also was very weak when he was born and had to be 
hand-fed for
months.

Thompson said the baby gibbon will go on exhibit with the rest of his family 
for a few
hours every other weekday afternoon and on weekend afternoons.

The gibbons live in the Sunda Forest exhibit, which covers 4,800 square feet 
and is more
than 35 feet tall. They share the exhibit -- equipped with about 3,500 linear 
feet of
rubber cable vines -- with Busar, a male orangutan.

Siamang gibbons are the largest of nine species of the apes found throughout 
southeast
Asia and Indonesia. The Siamang has a throat sac that enhances its call, 
which can be
heard throughout the zoo.

The hours to the zoo are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Winter hours, 10 a.m. to 3 
p.m., will
kick in Nov. 1.

Admission for children, 2 to 11 years of age, and for seniors, 62 years and 
older, is
$3.50. The cost for visitors 12 to 61 years of age is $7.

The reporter can be reached at lgalvan AT fresnobee.com or 441-6139.