Three-Year-Old Chimpanzee Practices Motherhood at South Australia Zoo

Zola, a three-year-old chimpanzee from Monarto Safari Park in South Australia, has been showing off her maternal instincts recently, the zoo said.

Footage from the chimpanzee enclosure at Monarto Safari Park shows three-year-old Zola building a nest for her pretend “baby”, which keepers said is actually a small rock.

CCTV also shows Zola carefully carrying baby Happy, an infant born to mom Hannah in December, before settling down for a supervised cuddle.

“Zola has always had a very maternal side and we have often caught her playing with rocks and building nests for her stones, even picking them up and carrying in her leg pocket as some ape mothers do," Laura Hanley, senior keeper for primates, said.

“Since Happy was born, Hannah has been allowing Zola to get closer and closer to her baby boy. Recently she was allowed to carry him under Hannah’s guidance and often has him in her lap … Zola is infatuated,” Hanley said.

Monarto Safari Park is home to 13 chimpanzees and supports the Jane Goodall Institute Australia, as well as the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. Credit: Zoos SA via Storyful

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