Bush baby and yellow baboon form unlikely bond at animal orphanage

(10 Jun 2011)
1. Various of bush baby and the yellow baboon playing and yellow baboon carrying bush baby
2. Mid of Charles Musyoki, a senior scientist for species and conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service, and unnamed man.
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Charles Musyoki, a senior scientist for species and conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service:
"The yellow baboon is about 6 months old and the other individual is about 3 months, 3 months old. So the baboon is older and therefore seems to take on the responsibility of nurturing the other one (bush baby). And therefore it could be said it's the baboon that is adopting the this other individual because it's older than it. Again it's a female and therefore it's also displaying, you know, maternal instincts of, you know, nurturing a young one."
4. Various of the bush baby and the yellow baboon playing
5. Both animals drinking milk from a bowl
STORYLINE
An abandoned bush baby and a yellow baboon have formed an unlikely companionship at an animal orphanage in Nairobi.
The six-month-old female baboon, abandoned by its family in Maralal in Northern Kenya, is taking care of the three-month-old bush baby that was also abandoned by its family in central Kenya.
Charles Musyoki, a senior scientist for species and conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service, said on Friday it is likely that the animals formed the bond in order to cope in the new environment at the animal orphanage.
"The yellow baboon is about 6 months old and the other individual is about 3 months, 3 months old. So the baboon is older and therefore seems to take on the responsibility of nurturing the other one (bush baby)," Musyoki said.
He said the union between the two species is a rare occurrence that was last recorded in Kenya in 2002, when a lioness adopted and nurtured a young oryx, a large antelope that lions normally hunt.
Musyoki said the two animals would not have had such a relationship in the wild.
The yellow baboon is active during the day and sleeps at night, while the bush baby is a nocturnal animal, he said.
The two animals will have to be separated as they become older, he said.
keyword animals wacky

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