Why the Leaf Monkey at Philadelphia Zoo Was Born Orange

This is one of these amazing animal mysteries I had to investigate.  Why was the baby Francois langur born on August 30 at the Philadelphia Zoo orange?

Although it does kind of coincide with Halloween, that doesn't have anything to do with why his baby hair is pumpkin-colored.

It turns out that baby Francois langurs, also known as François leaf monkeys, are always born with an orange color.

The Experts at the Philadelphia Zoo say that in Francois langur families, all females in the group take turns caring for infants. That's one of the reasons scientists believe babies are born with bright orange fur, making it easier to see who has the baby.

When his permanent fur begins to grow in, which should start happening soon for this little fellow, it will be black just like his mama.

A Facebook post from the zoo tells the interesting story of the mom, named Mei Mei, giving birth to her baby but not attending to him. The zoo tried another approach and said that it worked out wonderfully

...Our vet staff took the baby to our onsite animal hospital to care for him and make a plan to reintroduce him to mom. After a few days of bonding behind the scenes, he and mom are doing great and the entire family, including dad Chester, aunt Ling, and sisters Quy Bau and Lei, are obsessed with him! His birth is a huge conservation win for this species, as they are classified as Endangered by the IUCN.

Philadelphia Zoo says they relied on help from its partners in Vietnam in naming him Ông Cụ, which is a term that means "very old man" and is used when a boy is speaking wisely beyond his years.