New arrival for lemur family at Dudley Zoo

Dudley Zoo today announced that endangered ring-tailed lemurs Phoebe and Frank had a new baby on February 20. This is their 20th baby.

Rachel Hickman, press officer at the zoo, said the keepers had not been able to give a name to the baby as Phoebe had been very protective of it.

She said: "We won't be able to work out the sex of the baby for a while as the mother will always keep the baby close to its stomach for the first few weeks.

"The keepers may have had a chance to look, but nothing's been confirmed yet, but we know it's doing well as I've seen it looking around.

"It's incredible though and really nice to see new babies and the zoo is delighted to welcome a new baby, which brings another new arrival to Lemur Wood."

The new arrival will live with its parent and alongside siblings Spock, Nelly, Kelly, Icarus, Kinich, Itsy, Bitsy, Tom, Gerri, Kirk, Sarek, Sulu, Spider, Loki and Ronnie.

Rachel Hickman said that while 19-year-old Phoebe and 18-year-old Frank conceived 20 babies, some of the older lemurs were sent off to other breeding programmes.

She said: "Phoebe has been doing all the work to look after it and she's very experienced after so many babies, so we haven't needed to do anything.

"There have been other new arrivals here as well, with a baby skink being born and a lot of other animals being expectant, so spring is definitely in the air at the zoo.

"We hope people will be able to enjoy it when the zoo can reopen next month, with visitors required to wear masks due to being in close proximity to the animals."

To find out more about Dudley Zoo, go to dudleyzoo.org.uk