Taipei Zoo

Lar Gibbon Xiao Guai was brought to the Taipei Zoo after it was seized and confiscated in 1989. Xiao Guai gave birth to her first offspring “Bei Bei” in 1999, but she rejected Bei Bei outright and left it crying on the ground; perhaps because Bei Bei was born with golden yellow fur, sharply different from the dark-brown colored parents, or maybe it was Xiao Guai’s first time giving birth,. The Zoo had no choice but to get a Pig-tailed Macaque as the surrogate mother. Left without any rearing to do, Xiao Guai was mom again by the end of the same year, giving birth this time to a dark brown infant, of which she took to naturally and started mothering.

The keeper paired Xiao Guai with a new mate “Dai Zhong” in 2005 as means of introducing new bloodline to the gene pool. At the beginning of their match Dai Zhong stayed close to the 5-year-senior Xiao Guai’s side, and Xiao Guai busied herself grooming him. She was so attentive grooming him he nearly ended up bald. Eventually after three years of close intimacy, the pair finally changed from behaving like mother-infant into lovers, and gave birth to their lovechild on February 28, 2009.