Utica Zoo hosts baby shower for newborn gibbon Artoo

Utica Zoo repurposed a familiar human ritual into a public-facing conservation event, turning Artoo’s baby shower into part party, part fundraiser and part lesson in gibbon care at 1 Utica Zoo Way in Utica, New York. The celebration centered on Artoo, a male white-handed gibbon born December 17, 2025, and folded a cute occasion into a practical audience-building tool.

The zoo held the event Saturday at 10:30 a.m., with guests encouraged to wear blue for $1 off admission. That small discount made the promotion work on more than one level, drawing visitors in while giving the zoo a simple, memorable hook for connecting families to its animals and its mission.

Inside the celebration, the zoo let Artoo and his family out to a decorated exhibit filled with enrichment and treats. The event also included baby-themed education and games, an enrichment raffle and more, making the baby-shower format do real work as an outreach program rather than just a theme. Visitors who brought an enrichment gift for the family were entered to win a free family membership, and the zoo said those gifts could be wrapped or unwrapped. Recycled materials such as cardboard boxes and paper bags were welcome, a detail that underscored how even everyday household items can become part of animal care.

Artoo’s place in the zoo’s white-handed gibbon family gave the event added weight. Utica Zoo identifies his older brother Dooku, born January 30, 2023, and says the parents are Yoda, born June 14, 1984, and Snowflake, born January 22, 1988. The zoo also said Artoo’s birth was authorized through the Gibbon, Lar (White-Handed) Species Survival Program, and that this was the third time Snowflake and Yoda became parents at Utica Zoo. Their earlier offspring, Malay, now lives at Zoo Knoxville.

The baby shower fit a broader conservation story as well. White-handed gibbons are endangered, with conservation sources pointing to habitat loss and illegal capture and trade among the main threats. They are also known for their distinctive whooping calls and for living in small family groups, often as socially monogamous pairs. That makes a family-centered celebration feel unusually apt: Utica Zoo used a recognizable social format to make an endangered primate’s story accessible, while giving visitors a reason to show up, learn and give.