Baby monkey bonds with mom, species once thought to be abnormal

CINCINNATI, Ohio (WTXF/STORYFUL) - The first baby of 2017 has been born at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens.

Last week, the zoo welcomed a guereza colobus, which is a type of monkey once thought to be abnormal. Members of the species have no thumb - just a stub where the digit would usually be.

Video just released Wednesday shows the baby, still unnamed, bonding with first-time mom Adanna, 4. Dad is Tiberius, 21.

The baby's gender is not yet known.

Mom and baby are expected to stay behind the scenes for bonding during the cold months but visitors will see them later this year, in case you're in Cincinnati.

Guereza colobus are born snowy white with pink faces and blue eyes. The zoo says that's a good thing, so the mothers and families can easily see them in their native dense African rainforest canopies.

The babies have their full adult colors by about six months.

The monkeys spend the majority of their time in trees and the zoo says, "All colobus females look after each other's kids as they play around in the thick treetops."

According to the zoo, they are entirely vegetarian - equipped with three-chambered stomachs to help digest large amounts of leaves -- and their biggest threat is habitat loss, when forests are cut down.