India, June 22 -- In a first, the Meghalaya State Zoo successfully bred a Stump-tailed Macaque, a rare and increasingly threatened primate whose numbers are declining across much of its natural range in South and Southeast Asia.

The birth of the primate is being hailed as a landmark achievement for Meghalaya's wildlife conservation efforts and a significant step forward in securing the future of a species classified as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The infant was born to a breeding pair that had been brought from the Aizawl Zoological Park in Mizoram under an animal exchange programme designed to strengthen conservation breeding initiatives among zoos in the region. Officials say the birth demo...