Curraghs Wildlife Park are celebrating the birth of a baby gibbon and mother and baby doing fine.

With the new addition being born over the weekend, the park’s family has blossomed from three to four members; Mum - Slamet, Dad - Nukula, big brother - Ffinlo and the new baby.

As of yet, park staff don’t know the gender of the new arrival so have not yet been able to name him/her.

A statement from the park said: ’Mum and baby are doing well, Dad has been quite tender and was seen ’kissing’ the baby’s head while big brother looked on with great interest.

’Silvery gibbons are only found on the island of Java and are sometimes referred to as the Javan gibbon, as little as 2,000 breeding adults are left in the wild and they are classified as an endangered species by the IUCN.

’The Curraghs Wildlife Park Conservation fund has paid out over £7,000 (since 2016) to the Javan Primate Conservation Project which rehabilitates Silvery gibbons back into a protected forest in Java - these are gibbons that have been illegally stolen from the forests and sold to the pet trade in Java.

’Staff at the park are delighted for the Gibbon family- we have all enjoyed watching Ffinlo grow up for the last 3 years, and so we are looking forward to watching the new baby grow and the change in family dynamics.’

Ffinlo, who is now three, will stay in the family group for another five years and the new baby at least year years. Gibbons ’leave home’ between the age of eight to 10 years old.