It was tough for this tiny monkey because her own mother didn’t want her very soon after she was born. With all the odds against her, the tiny creature looked like she was going to die. But the zookeepers at the Houston Zoo, where she was born, had a different view. Bottle-feeding the monkey from Goeldi has been a big help in getting her back to good health now.

The primate keepers found the cute little thing in the Goeldi’s monkey enclosure on Jan. 15. She was less than an ounce when she was found. Unfortunately, even though the keepers tried, the mother didn’t want to take her baby, so they had to act quickly to help her. So they moved the newborn monkey to the intensive care unit for vets.

Primate keepers at the Houston Zoo found a surprise when they went to the Goeldi’s monkey night house on Jan. 15, 2022. They found a tiny baby monkey hanging from a branch in her enclosure. It didn’t work right away when the team tried to get Kylie to take the baby, so they decided to hand-raise Betty while still trying to get her parents to bond.

After she was rejected by her parents, the staff at the zoo named her Betty in honor of the late actress and animal lover, Betty White. She will stay with the keepers for the next few months. As soon as she’s strong enough, they’ll take care of her and feed her all the time.

Because she was so weak, she couldn’t hold on to her mother properly and feed properly. That’s what Amy, a keeper at the zoo clinic, told me. Every two hours, we have to feed her. It’s a 24-hour job. It’s hard to believe, but it does take a lot of people to raise a monkey this small!