Baby Squirrel Monkeys Hitch Rides on Mothers at Vienna Zoo

Three baby squirrel monkeys are riding piggyback through their enclosure at Vienna’s Schönbrunn Zoo, clinging to their mothers’ fur as they take their first steps into the world.

The youngsters were born in September and are an important addition to the European breeding program for the species, the zoo said on October 20. While they still spend most of their time on their mothers’ backs, they are growing bolder by the day, increasingly leaving to grab curiously at branches.

“In squirrel monkeys, the males are not involved in raising the young. Instead, other females in the group help with the care,” said keeper Melanie Tötzl. Other females carry the babies on their backs at times and return them to their mothers to nurse. The young monkeys are suckled for around six months but start eating solid food such as vegetables, fruit and insects at two months old.

The babies can be seen, and especially heard, in the outdoor enclosure of the zoo’s historic monkey house on sunny autumn days. “Research suggests that their communication partly resembles a dialogue,” said zoo director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck, describing short contact calls the animals exchange like questions and answers.