Rare monkey born at Santa Ana Zoo

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Although it doesn’t really follow Shakespeare’s original plot, two raremonkeys named Romeo and Juliet at Santa Ana Zoo have come together and produced an offspring.

Romeo and Juliet are crested capuchin monkeys, and the baby is one of the first of its kind born in captivity in the United States, reports the Orange County Register. There are only 11 others living in U.S. zoos, said Ethan Fisher, the registrar at the zoo, citing an international animal database. (The two here are from the Los Angeles Zoo.) Native to Brazil, crested capuchins live in small, isolated groups. Their forest habitat is disappearing and only 10,000 are known to exist in the wild.

Zookeepers still don’t know the sex of the baby, born March 25. They haven’t been able yet to inspect the monkey because of its overprotective parents.

The Santa Ana Zoo has often been called the Monkey Zoo because of a requirement, set down by its founder, that it always house at least 50 monkeys.

For more details and a photo gallery, check out the OC Register’s story.

-Francisco Vara-Orta