Conservationists are celebrating the birth of the world’s rarest chimpanzee at Chester Zoo, saying it gives “hope” to the critically endangered species.

New mum ZeeZee, a critically endangered western chimpanzee, safely delivered the “precious” baby boy following an eight-month pregnancy.

The new male is in good health and has spent the first few weeks of life bonding with his mother and the rest of the 22-strong troop, according to the zoo.

He will be named after a rockstar or famous pop icon to help boost the profile of the highly threatened species, in what is a longstanding tradition among conservationists.

Around 18,000 western chimpanzees now remain across Africa, and it is the first subspecies of chimpanzees to ever be declared critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The new baby boy’s birth gives further “hope” to efforts to ensure the long-term survival of the species, primatologists say.

Andrew Lenihan, team manager at Chester Zoo, said he and his colleagues are “incredibly proud to see a precious new baby in the chimpanzee troop”.

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He said a birth always creates “a lot of excitement in the group”, as raising a youngster soon becomes a “real extended family affair”.

“You’ll often see the new baby being passed between other females who want to lend a helping hand and give ZeeZee some well-deserved rest, and that’s exactly what her daughter, Stevie, is doing with her new brother. It looks as though she’s taken a real shine to him, which is great to see,” he said.

He added that ZeeZee’s new baby is a “small but vital boost to the global population of western chimpanzees, at a time when it’s most needed for this critically endangered species”.

The apes are under significant threat in the wild as a result of hunting for the illegal bush meat trade, diseases spread by humans and extensive habitat loss and forest destruction across West Africa.

Mike Jordan, Animal and Plant Director at the zoo, added: “In the last 25 years alone the world has lost 80% of its western chimpanzee population, so the arrival of a healthy baby here at Chester offers us real hope that we can help turn things around for this species.”

Small populations of the western chimpanzee can still be found in the likes of Senegal and Ghana in West Africa – but have become extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo.

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