Bronx Zoo shows off its newest arrival: a baby Gelada baboon

NEW YORK -- The Bronx Zoo is showing off its bouncy new addition.

A baby Gelada baboon is now living in the exhibit with the other baboons.

He spent his first six months indoors with his mother.

The young male is the first Gelada baboon born in the U.S. in over 13 years.

Geladas are native to Ethiopia and are unique among primates because their diet consists mostly of grass.

The Bronx Zoo is the only zoo in the U.S. that exhibits geladas.

"This is an exciting birth for the Bronx Zoo and our visitors," said Jim Breheny, WCS Executive Vice President and General Director of WCS's Zoos and Aquarium. "To watch the young gelada race around the hillside, jumping and interacting with the adults is an experience not to be missed. It is an inspiring sight that transports you to the East African highlands."

According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the young male gelada was born in the fall. He has been bonding with its mother, Fayola, over the winter and can now be seen in the Baboon Reserve in the zoo's Africa Plains. Weighing a mere 460 grams at birth, he will grow to be approximately 65 pounds as an adult.

The times the baby gelada is visible to the public will vary day-by-day depending on weather, temperature, and other environmental factors.

Geladas are a species of old world monkey. They are sometimes called "gelada baboons" or "bleeding heart baboons" for the characteristic red patch of skin on their chests. The red patch becomes more pronounced in females during the mating season to attract males. The males have a beautiful flowing cape of long hair on their backs that resembles a shawl.

Geladas are a graminivores, and are unique among primates in that they feed primarily on grasses. Adult males have prominent canines that they use to display to other competing males, and they will communicate to each other through a wide range of vocalizations and gestures.

The zoo's Baboon Reserve, where the geladas have called home since 1990, is representative of the natural habitat of the geladas' native Ethiopian highlands. The exhibit also includes Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), a species of long-horned mountain goat that is adapted to steep mountainous habitats, and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), a small, terrestrial mammal that lives among boulders, rock crevices and within cliffs.