Second set of twins for proud loris parents
Thursday 14 June 2012
ZSL London Zoo is celebrating Fathers’ Day with an exciting arrival of a pair of tiny slender loris twins.
© ZSL
Born to mum Menika and dad Nehru, the tiny duo is the second set of slender loris twins to be born at ZSL London Zoo this year.
Born with very fine pale grey hair, and their big eyes firmly closed, the infants weighed just 20g each at birth but will eventually grow.
Already parents to two girls, Nehru and Menika have doubled their brood with the new arrivals, but dad is an old hand when it comes to parenthood – he can often be seen helping mum at feeding time and giving her a break from carrying the youngsters.
These nocturnal creatures usually give birth to just one offspring at a time, but this is the second time in just a few months that keepers at ZSL London Zoo have welcomed a twin arrival.
Zookeeper Nick Garrett said: “It’s really unusual for slender lorises to give birth to more than one offspring, so for us to welcome a second set in one year is very exciting."
“It’ll be a busy Father’s Day for Nehru, now that he’s got his hands full with four youngsters!”
The grey slender lorises at ZSL London Zoo are relatives of the highly endangered Red Slender lorises, that are a priority species in our EDGE of Existence Programme .
