OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Oklahoma City Zoo officials say a baby chimp will go on display soon, nearly a year after its mother died giving birth to her.
Dr. Jennifer D'Agostino, director of veterinary services, said Zoe the chimp was delivered via emergency Caesarean section last October after her mother Chloe went into respiratory and cardiac arrest, The Oklahoman reported Saturday.
"If we did nothing," D'Agostino said of the emergency surgical delivery conducted on an unresponsive Chloe, "we could have lost them both."
Zoe's birth marked the first time a chimp was born at the Oklahoma City Zoo in nearly 60 years and starting next week, the young chimp will go on display for the general public.
Jennifer Davis, supervisor of the zoo's Great EscApe exhibit, told the Oklahoma City newspaper helping Zoe in the wake of losing her mother involved holding her 24 hours a day for months.
"Some people try to equate it to raising a baby," Davis told The Oklahoman. "But we could never put her down."
