Adorable baby gorilla born at the San Diego Zoo.

On September 3 at approximately 11:30 p.m. Azizi, an 11 ½- year-old
western lowland gorilla started to show signs of entering the first
stage of labor. Keepers noted that she was becoming increasingly
restless and experiencing contractions. Her labor continued into the
next morning and at 11:05 a.m. Azizi gave birth to a very healthy and
robust baby boy. His birth weight was approximately 5 lbs! The entire
troop remained together and inside the gorilla management facility at
the Zoo. Azizi’s troop consists of one 19-year-old silverback male,
Paul Donn, and two other females 13 year old Imani and 14-year-old
Ndjia.

The infant, who remains unnamed, is doing very well. Unfortunately,
after delivering her baby Azizi did not show the strong mothering
skills that we had all hoped for. She was very protective of the infant
but did not carry him close enough to her chest to give him the
opportunity to nurse. After two days the infant had not been observed
nursing nor had Azizi been in frequent close contact with him. This
raised concern that his body temperature was dropping since he was
unable to thermo regulate. There were also concerns of dehydration.
After much discussion with veterinarians and management staff the
decision was made to intervene. Since Azizi was leaving the infant for
short periods of time we decided to take the opportunity to separate
and handle the infant to perform a medical evaluation. This procedure
was executed successfully. There was great care being taken to ensure
that Azizi remained in visual contact of the infant as much as
possible. The infant was given back to his mother and keepers continued
to observe carefully looking for any signs of nursing bouts. As time
went on with no nursing taking place the staff decided to start
bottle-feeding the baby with human infant formula. He accepted this
change well and continues to be bottle fed by keepers.

The current plan for this gorilla infant is to expose him to as much
normal gorilla behavior as possible, limiting confusion about human
relationships and behaviors. The keepers give Azizi and her troop as
much opportunity as possible to interact with the infant. Ultimately,
as the baby develops and becomes more independent he will become fully
integrated back into his troop.