Melbourne Zoo staff step up as mum for abandoned spider monkey

Dedicated Melbourne Zoo staff have been forced to intervene and take an endangered baby spider monkey into their care after it was abandoned by its mother.

Little Elena was born in June (pictured above) without fuss and cared for by her mother for several weeks.

However, the bonding unexpectedly ended a couple of months ago and keepers had to intervene and take Elena under their wing to ensure her survival.

Over the past three months, keepers have been nurturing her through the delicate phase.

They have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, with regular bottle feeds around the clock, and have implemented various strategies to ensure she remained integrated with and was not rejected by the spider monkey group.

Elena is today now in great health and is now back with the wider group and is being looked after by ‘surrogate’ spider-monkey mother Maya