Animal lovers can choose the name of a new endangered arrival at Howletts Wild Animal Park.

A baby white naped mangabey, who was born last week, is yet to be named after keepers decided to leave the decision to the public.

The youngster is the first of his kind to be born at the Canterbury park and quickly became the centre of attention with the group.

Head primate keeper Matt Ford said: “We are all so pleased to welcome the new baby to our group of white naped mangabeys.

“This is the first time we have bred these primates at Howletts and it heralds the start of another successful breeding programme for the park.

“Most importantly, it’s great news for the species as white naped mangabeys are listed as one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world.”

White naped mangabeys can be found in west African countries such as Burkina Faso and Ghana but their numbers have recently fallen sharply due to deforestation and hunting.

It is believed that in the last 27 years, their numbers have dropped by more than 50%.

Matt added: “This young male is certainly very special and we’ve been thinking about appropriate names.

“As this is the first white naped mangabey we’ve had born here, we thought it would be really nice to enlist the help of our supporters and visitors to help us choose a suitable name via our social media pages.”

The three names on the Facebook poll are Koba, Jalang and Jola.

Koba is the name of a river in the Mangabeys homeland of Senegal, Jalang is the name of a spirit in Senegalese culture and Jola is a Gambian tribe name.

Voters can select their choice on the Howletts Wild Animal Facebook page. The poll shuts on Saturday, November 5.