Brookfield Zoo gibbon family welcomes baby boy

BROOKFIELD, Ill. (WLS) -- The gibbon ape family at Brookfield Zoo has added another member to its clan - a baby boy. On Wednesday morning, Eyewitness News reporter Frank Mathie was there for the little guy's debut.

It's the call of the wild at Brookfield Zoo in tropic world Asia, the gibbon apes are celebrating the arrival of new baby. It is mom Indah's third son in the last five years, but it's still very special.

"We have a new birth. A new white cheeked gibbon was born on June 9th and that's really great for us because there are so few of them in North America. We have 88 of them because they're critically endangered in the wild," said Jay Petersen, curator of carnivores and primates.

Mom and baby swing through the trees with the greatest of ease and they say the clinging baby is in no danger of falling because the gibbon is the jungle's greatest acrobat. And they all - the males and females - come into this world the same color as mom.

"All white-cheeked gibbons are born the buff color and they match the mother's color that way. So they're somewhat disguised in the mother," said Petersen.

The little boy will remain the light brown color for about a year before turning black like his brothers and father. Adult females are always the light brown buff.

The little boy will cling to his mother for the next couple of months and then slowly become more independent. Ultimately he will become a brachiater, and that's our new vocabulary word for today: brachiate.

"Brachiating. That's how gibbons move through the treetops. It's a fancy word for swinging. They swing arm to arm, branch to branch through the trees, much like a pendulum," said Petersen.

And then we see something special: the baby's older brother starts kissing him - or does he?

"It wasn't like the kiss that we typically think of, he's just checking his little brother out," said Petersen.

I disagree. A kiss is still a kiss no matter what.