Zookeepers solve mystery of how ape got pregnant in isolation

Zookeepers in Japan have solved the mystery of how an ape kept in isolation managed to get pregnant, according to a report from the New Zealand Herald.

Twelve-year-old white-handed gibbon Momo lives at the Kujukushima Zoo & Botanical Garden. Vice News reports that she did, in fact, have male neighbors but the cages were separated by chicken wire fences and bars.

Zookeepers were shocked when she became a mom in 2021 and set out to solve the puzzle through DNA analysis taken from stool and hair samples.

It took us two years to figure it out because we couldn’t get close enough to collect samples - she was very protective of her child,” zoo superintendent Jun Yamano told Vice.

Zoo officials announced this week that Momo's partner has been identified: Itoh, a 34-year-old agile gibbon.

The NZ Herald says a 9-millimeter hole in the wall is to blame. The wall separated Momo's cage from a space that the two primates took turns occupying.

We think it’s very likely that on one of the days that Itoh was in the exhibition space, they copulated through a hole,” Yamano told Vice.

The zoo says they're working on moving Itoh in with Momo and their baby.