Zoo Babies - Raising Baby Iwani

Capitalising on the cute charisma of baby animals, Raising Baby Iwani highlights the inherent dramas of animal breeding programmes. It follows the story of twin Baby Iwani, a lovable Siamang gibbon whose mother rejected him at six weeks of age. Auckland Zoo Senior Primate Keeper Christine Tintinger takes on the role of surrogate Mum for more than a year, hand-raising Iwani before introducing him back to his father. Zoo Babies consisted of a ten episode series and this special, which originally screened in two parts. Both were offshoots of long-running Greenstone TV series The Zoo.

See he's got to get used to this. He's obviously not liking it but he's going to have to get used to this rough housing that the Siamangs do even when they're playing...

– Zookeeper Christine Tintinger on Iwani adapting to life with other Siamang gibbons

Key Cast & Crew

Kylie Henderson

Production Manager, Research

Andrea Lamb

Series Director, Executive Producer

Penny Ashbrook

Post-Production Director

Bill Kerton

Narrator

Torin Mathias

Editor

Maree Quinn

Series Director