Zoo Knoxville celebrated a very happy birthday on Friday.
Opie the langur is now a year old. The little guy was a big surprise to zoo staffers when he arrived last December.
The zoo welcomed three Silvered-Leaf langur monkeys to its Asian Trek exhibit. They came from a zoo in California, and unbeknownst to everyone involved, one of them had a baby on board!
Zoo staffers first noticed the tiny orange miracle baby clinging to its mother right around Christmas.
Now, the little guy has grown a bit and his fur has darkened, but he's as adorable as ever, and especially fascinated with the blue streamers that decorated his enclosure on Friday.
Zoo keepers say that he has been like a bouncy ball, but he's learning to be independent by branching out from the group.
Just like most one-year-old's, staffers say he still acts like a toddler most of the time.
"He does not stay still long. Again, like a toddler. So he just moves place to place just checking everything out. He's very curious. If anything scares him, if it's too spooky, he definitely runs back to mom," said Sydney Mccartt, Asian Trek Zookeeper at Zoo Knoxville
Zoo Knoxville is only one out of five institutions in the U.S. that house Silver- leaf langers. The species is critically endangered from deforestation.