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Press Releases
Happy Early Mother's Day! Apple Valley, MINN – May 4, 2011 – …and another makes 20! Just in time for Mother's Day, the Minnesota Zoo is excited to announce the birth of a snow monkey, adding one more to its popular exhibit. Snow monkeys can only be seen at nine other accredited zoos within the United States. Although its mother “Yumoto” has been keeping it close, the infant – born April 27 – is starting to become visible to the public. The baby, whose gender is not yet known, is on exhibit every other day. In 2008, the Minnesota Zoo began supporting field research (in situ) on snow monkeys at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University in Japan. The infant’s birth is important for the sustainability of the macaque population in North America, as its mother came to the Minnesota Zoo from a Japanese zoo in 2009. Also called Japanese macaques, snow monkeys – considered a threatened species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service – are medium-sized primates recognizable by their reddish-colored faces, whiskers/beards, and long, dense brown fur. They originate from Japan, including the Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Takeshima Islands. Snow monkeys live in troops ranging from 25-500 individuals, and spend their days both in trees and on the ground. They have a complex system of communication including more than 30 vocal sounds and a wide range of facial and body expressions. They eat fruit, roots, leaves, insects, and crops such as rice, maize and potatoes. After a gestation period of 170-180 days, snow monkeys give birth–almost always to a single infant–between April and July. Although infants are a great source of interest to other females in the group, mothers do not allow other monkeys to pick up their infants for several weeks after birth. Research has revealed that this species has highly complex social structures and excellent learning abilities. Individuals have been known to participate in interesting behavior patterns, like washing the dirt off sweet potatoes, which are learned in time by other members of the troop. The Minnesota Zoo is located in Apple Valley, just minutes south of Mall of America. For more information, call 952.431.9500 or visit mnzoo.org. The Minnesota Zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and an institutional member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).
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