Baby Gorilla at San Francisco Zoo
(From October 2013)
The infant, an endangered western lowland gorilla born July 2013 at the San Francisco Zoo, was a first for Rogers, a neonatologist at UCSF's Benioff Children's Hospital who ordinarily treats human babies. She and several of her colleagues were called in last spring to consult on the birth, and have been working with zookeepers and veterinarians ever since. About 100,000 western lowland gorillas are living in the wild in central Africa, and about 750 are living in captivity. Gorilla births in captivity are rare - there may be only half a dozen each year in the United States, and the last baby at the San Francisco Zoo came in 2008.
The baby, was born July 17 to 14-year-old first-time mom Nneka and Oscar Jonesy, the 32-year-old silverback leader of the zoo's gorilla troop. As of last week, at Rogers' visit, the baby weighed just under 8 pounds, which is small for her age. But she's a strong, wiry thing, with long arms and legs, and she's already mastered swinging from branches, her keepers say.
The zoo brought in the neonatologists several weeks before the baby was due to help create a birth plan and prepare for potential complications during and after the birth. They arranged for an obstetrician to be on call in case the mother needed an emergency Caesarian section.
Nneka ended up having an uncomplicated birth in the middle of the gorilla enclosure, much to the delight of some zoo visitors, including one man who managed to record part of it on his phone and upload the video to YouTube. [font size=4 ]But the mother Nneka ultimately rejected the baby, [/font size] which isn't uncommon, Crawford said. Zookeepers tried to coax her to care for her baby by leaving the infant in her enclosure and staying away. But after a few days, Nneka was ignoring the baby, and the infant needed food and warmth. She is now cared for around the clock by two keepers, who sleep with her every night, feed her bottles and coo to her in a gorilla-like hum. The baby - along with, for now, her keepers - lives in the same space as her gorilla family so the animals can smell and hear one another, although they're kept separated by chain-link fences.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/The-docs-who-keep-zoo-s-baby-gorilla-in-the-pink-4867808.php
Gorilla Baby Birth
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Baby Gorilla and Grandmother [/font size]
(From Dec 21, 2013)
The San Francisco Zoo is on an apparent mission to inundate you with baby animal cuteness. To wrap up a banner year of newborns, the zoo is finally revealing the baby gorilla born in July. Her name, Kabibe, is Swahili for "little lady."
For the past five months, the zoo has been carefully transitioning her care from the staff over to her western lowland gorilla family. According to a press release from the zoo, [font size=4] matriarch “grandma” Bawang jumped into action as the infant’s adoptive mother, [/font size] supervising her introductions to the other gorillas in the troop.
“Once again, Bawang has taken on the huge responsibility of motherhood and has set a positive tone for the troop,” San Francisco Zoo President Tanya Peterson said. “We feel very blessed to be able to contribute to the population of this critically endangered species and we feel especially grateful to introduce the entire gorilla family to the public during this holiday season.”
The public will be able to view Kabibe on Saturday, but we have a few sneak peak photos below.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/baby-gorilla-san-francisco-zoo_n_4483040.html?ir=Green
The public will be able to view Kabibe on Saturday.
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All photos by Marianne Hale courtesy of the San Francisco Zoo
= new reply since forum marked as read
TYY 
Amazing creatures and the little one is adorable.
Their behavior with their young is mesmerizing. I love that 'grandma' pulled a blanket with her to sit on.
