Meet Belfast Zoo's latest tiny addition

Belfast Zoo has welcomed a special new arrival."Wee Red" is a rare Francois langur monkey.But the princess of primates has needed a little extra help to settle in. The rare Francois' langur primate, who is only three months old, is still being carefully looked after and bottle-fed by Belfast Zoo Keeper, Geraldine Murphy.

As her “adoptive mother”, Geraldine takes the baby monkey home every night so she can continue bottle feeding her every few hours.Born on 8 May, the female primate has been nicknamed “wee red” by Geraldine’s family and so she has been officially named Hóngxīn, meaning “red heart” in Chinese. The name is also a nod to the small distinctive heart-shaped birth mark on the back of the infant’s head.

 Geraldine has spent several months raising Hóngxīn and has now begun the process of slowly reintroducing her into the family unit.

Listed as endangered with estimates of less than 2000 left in the wild, the monkey is native to China and Vietnam and is threatened by poachers and loss of habitat in its home countries.

These rare primates have black fur with white streaks of hair running from their mouths to their ears. They also have a tuft of hair on top of their head. However, infants are born with orange fur which gradually changes to adult colouration as they mature.