Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN/Tiergarten Schoenbrunn

This is the adorable moment a cute, rare newborn monkey feeds from its mother’s breast and gets to know its surroundings in the world’s oldest zoo.

The king colobus (Colobus polykomos), also known as the western black-and-white colobus, is a species of Old World monkey that is classified as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The cute baby monkey was born in Schoenbrunn Zoo, considered to be the world’s oldest, in the Austrian capital Vienna on 30th March.

Pictures Credit: CEN/Daniel Zupanc & CEN/Tiergarten Schoenbrunn

Zoo director Dagmar Schratter said: “The king colobus is threatened in the wild because of the destruction of rainforests in West Africa.

“There are only a few of them in zoos so we are overjoyed by this birth.”

Heartwarming images show the baby king colobus clinging onto its mum and feeding from her nipple.

As zookeepers maintain a good relationship with the monkey troop, they were able to get close enough to determine that the newborn is a female.

Zookeeper Nadine Brauer said: “We named the little one after a town in Sierra Leone called Makeni.”

Makeni currently has white fur with dark patches around its eyes, which is normal with newborns.

They typically grow black fur at around four months old.

Its proud mum Kwaku has now given birth to three infants in the zoo after Mali was born three years ago and Togo arrived last year.

Brauer said: “Mali is a great older sister. She was even allowed to carry the baby around for a short time – but always under Kwaku’s watchful eye.”

The king colobus lives in small groups of three to four females and up to three males plus their offspring.

They eat leaves, fruits and flowers which they consume on the ground despite mostly living in trees.