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Baboon adopts chicken at zoo
Mon Sep 17, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL147902220070917

Raw video at:
http://tinyurl.com/2ex3wb


VILNIUS (Reuters) - A lonely baboon in a private Lithuanian zoo has
adopted a chicken he saved from certain death last month and the two
have formed a fast friendship, the zoo's director said Friday.

The chicken was intended as food for other animals in the zoo, but
escaped and was sheltered by Mitis, a six-year-old Hamadryas Baboon,
Edvardas Legeckas, who runs the zoo near the port city Klaipeda in
western Lithuania, told Reuters.

Mitis has been fed chicken meat before, but this time he fell in love
with his food, Legeckas said.

"He plays with the chicken, cleans its feathers, sleeps with it, and
takes care as if it was his own baby child," the zoo director said.

"But I am not sure how long this affair would last, because baboon may
finally realize this is food."

Baboons, with their distinctive long dog-like muzzles and heavy
powerful jaws, are omnivorous, but usually prefer fruit. In the wild,
they live in close-knit social groups.

"Obviously this baboon needed someone to communicate with," the director said.