Zimba’s brand new baby!

The girls at Sonso really are doing us proud this year – after Gladys and Kigere arrived with their little girls over the holidays and Melissa giving birth to her boy in late January, Zimba had her baby yesterday!

always friendly (even with us!) Zig loves to play with the babies and is sure to enjoy having a new play-mate.

Zimba is one of our most experienced females and the only grandma in the community. Yesterday we saw her with the new addition to her family who we think was born in the early morning. As with human babies the umbilical cord can take a few days to drop off and interestingly Zimba had carefully wrapped it round the young infant. Chimpanzee mothers often leave the group to give birth to their babies and reappear anywhere from a few days to a few months later. It’s incredibly rare to see a baby on the day it’s born, and it’s probably Zimba’s high position in the group hierarchy that allowed her to feel comfortable exposing her precious new baby to the group at such an early stage. What ever the reason it is wonderful to see yet another addition to the Sonso community and we’re looking forward to see if the baby takes after its sensible sister Kewaya, its cheeky little brother Zak or the gentle but equally fun-loving Zig.