Spectacled langurs welcome a new arrival

Animal news | 27 February 2026

We are delighted to welcome the first baby born to our spectacled langurs here at Dresden Zoo. On 16 February, a new member was born into our langur family, consisting of mother Latura, father Apollo, and their almost two-year-old youngster Felipe.

The little new arrival is a female and has been named Ida. In their first few weeks of life, the young animals have a characteristic orange coat that is a real eye-catcher.

This striking colouring serves as an important signal to members of the group that the youngster needs special care and protection, and the whole family looks after the infant attentively. Spectacled langurs usually give birth to a single offspring after a gestation period of around five months. The entire family is involved in raising the young: Even Felipe, the big brother, is already allowed to carefully carry and tend to his little sister.

Ida is very agile, lively and curious, and explores her surroundings with great interest. She is still exclusively breastfed and will only start eating solid food at around six months. A spectacled langur’s diet consists mainly of leaves, as, like all leaf monkeys, they have a multi-chambered stomach that can efficiently break down the hard-to-digest plant matter.

At the moment, spectacled langurs are kept in five zoos across the whole of Europe. Ida is currently the only offspring in the entire continent and is therefore immensely important to the long-term conservation of this endangered species, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has put on its Red List.