A BABY spider monkey which has been nurtured back to health at Blackpool Zoo after being rejected by her natural mother is nearly ready to return to her family.
Toa, the baby spider monkey, pictured here, is now nearly four months old and has been carefully nurtured in a special baby unit at the zoo, where she was bottle fed on regular baby milk mix before recently moving on to solid foods.
Natalie Quinton, a primate keeper at the zoo, has effectively been Toa's surrogate mum while its real parents watch from an adjacent see-through enclosure.
Natalie said: "Toa's natural parents are taking a great deal of notice and they are becoming very protective towards her. They know by their natural instincts that she is their baby and it looks as though they will become a very happy family when she is re-introduced in the next few weeks".
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