With this in mind, keepers intervened as little as possible - only bottle feeding Velu for a few days at the beginning of his life when Heleen put him down and showed little interest in him. Hand rearing a chimpanzee has a huge impact on the individual as they are extremely intelligent and have complex needs a hand reared chimp may in fact never fully be an independent chimp. Initially mum Heleen was a little uncertain about raising a baby and keepers had to decide how much they should help. The young chimp was born to mum Heleen, who came from a group of chimps rescued from a research laboratory in the Netherlands before later being brought over to RZSS Edinburgh Zoo in 2010. A paternity test is still to take place, but keepers think Velu's father is either 38 year old Louis or 21 year old Rene, two of the males in the group. Male chimps are only considered to be fully mature at 15 years of age. Velu is still always near Heleen as chimpanzees are completely dependent on their mothers for a few years, before they start to wander around and explore much more independently at around two years of age and wean from their mother's milk at between three and four years old. Velu's name means "hairy" in French, which is a reference to his most distinctive feature - long spiky hair atop his head, with a neat parting down the middle!Ĭurrently still very much a toddler, Velu is learning to walk, eat a small amount of solids and starting to play. Velu is extra special as he is a pure Western chimpanzee, an underrepresented subspecies of the common chimpanzee, and all chimps are classed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Velu's first birthday is particularly significant as this year is the 10 year anniversary of RZSS' work with wild chimpanzees at the Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda. Velu, the baby chimpanzee at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo's award winning Budongo Trail, celebrates a special milestone on Wednesday 24 June, as he turns one! Now a lively toddler, Velu is the first chimpanzee to be successfully reared in Scotland for 15 years.
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