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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Graeme Murray

Mum chimpanzee reunites with her newborn at zoo in heartwarming moment

A heartwarming moment where a mother chimpanzee reunites with her newborn at zoo has been captured on video.

The newest member of its animal family was welcomed by Sedgewick Zoo in Kansas, US, on Tuesday after a chimpanzee gave birth to male baby by C-Section.

In the footage the mother, called Mahale is excited to see and cuddle her son after two days apart because of birthing complications during her labour.

A worker at the zoo praised the mum's new arrival in the short video which was posted on social media saying: "Good job, Mahale!"

The baby animal was named Kucheza meaning “play” in Swahili, Kansas-based zoo workers said.

A C-section birth was was carried out after animal carers noticed Mahale was having difficulties giving birth.

Kucheza was also delighted to see his mother who he had been without for two days (Sedgwick County Zoo/ Facebook)

Kucheza was reunited after experts Doctors Whisler and Chibry from College Hill Obstetrics and Gynecology were asked to help zoo vets with the delivery process.

Dr Heather Arens, director of animal health at Sedwick County Zoo, also helped with the labour process.

She pointed out the difficulty with animal births is doctors can’t carefully monitor the mother to determine how their contractions are doing.

Mahale is excited to see and cuddle her son after two days apart (SedgwickCoZoo/ Youtube)

Dr Arens told Kansas news station KWCH : “The teamwork and the collaboration with human medical doctors and the collaboration with the community, I think that is something that not every zoo has.

"So fortunate to be a part of it here in Wichita.”

The Mirror reported last month how escaped chimpanzee roamed the streets of a city in Ukraine before finally being coaxed back home on a bicycle.

The mum took a moment and then realised her son was in front of her (SedgwickCoZoo/ Youtube)

The mischievous ape 'Chichi' roamed around Kharkiv and handlers found it difficult to get the chimp back home until it began to rain.

Footage shows Chichi happily ambling about the city caught up in Vladimir Putin's war, before handlers catch up with her and try and encourage her to go back home.

As the heavens opened, Chichi ran over to her handlers for them to put a bright yellow jacket on and shelter from the weather.

Oleksiy Hryhoriev, the director of the zoo Chichi escaped from, confirmed Chichi was now back home safe and sound.

Kucheza was wrapped in a blue blanket when her mother entered the enclosure (SedgwickCoZoo/ Youtube)

Journalist Hanna Liubakova shared the footage on Twitter and it has since been viewed over 350,000 times.

She reported: " Ukraine in Kharkiv, a chimpanzee escaped from a zoo. It was walking around the city while zoo employees tried to convince it to return.

"Suddenly it started to rain, and the ape ran to a zoo employee for a jacket and then agreed to return to the zoo."

Chichi's zoo has suffered tragedy recently as Kharkiv dealt with the effects of falling Russian bombs in the war with Putin's invading forces.

Zoo owner and Kharkiv businessman Oleksandr Feldman said more than 100 animals died at Feldman’s Ecopark alive before they could be evacuated to a new location.

In April, zookeepers were faced with the decision to put down all large animals after enclosures were damaged by shelling; Kharkiv is just 40 miles from the Russian border.

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