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Baby love: the abandoned monkey stealing hearts

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Tito isn’t your average baby Spider Monkey.

Abandoned by his mother at birth, Tito had a tough start to life.

Despite several attempts to get his mother to bond with him, the decision was made by keepers at Hunter Valley Zoo to take the baby from the den before he became too cold and dehydrated.

He was immediately put on a stuffed toy, wrapped up and warmed with a hot water bottle.

“His mum doesn’t want to be a mum, she’s had three opportunities, two of her babies in the past have died, and then she had no interest in Tito so the decision was made to hand raise him,” Primate Keeper Daisy Murphy said.

That means little Tito is a lot of work for the team of keepers, which need to feed him around the clock like any newborn.

“To hand raise him is a big opportunity for us, we’ve never done this before, but for genetic reasons we had to get involved and we are doing the best we can to raise him and get him back into the brood of monkeys and even breed in the future,” Ms Murphy said.

And, with hard work comes rewards – Tito’s personality is slowly starting to blossom.

“He’s like any newborn baby at the moment, he eats, sleeps and poops, but he’s becoming a bit more playful,” Ms Murphy said.

“He has a few toys he plays with in his brooder box, which is to help regulate his temperature.”

The zoo is also now home to two Dingo pups, Malakai and Kira.

Now 10 weeks old, the pups were born at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney and brought to Cessnock for Malakai to be bred.

“They’re doing really well, smashing their food and very playful, the visitors love them,” Zoo Keeper Riley Lowe said.

They’ve proven to be a crowd favourite, with the school holidays attracting more people to the zoo.

“We are really happy with the community for supporting us,” Mr Lowe said.

“School holidays were really busy which was good after being closed for three months to have a bit of a boom.”

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