An infant gorilla that was abandoned by his mother gets a surrogate mother as another female gorilla at a UK Zoo took him in as her own little one.
Hasani, who was born in August last year at the Bristol Zoo Gardens, was cared for by keepers after Kala, his birth mum, did not look after him.
6 teams took turns with around the baby gorilla for 7 months in order to make sure that he gets fed at least 8 times on a daily basis.
2 months ago, carers of the zoo reintroduced him to his mother with hopes that she would be able to care for him, but things did not go good.
Lynsey Bugg, a curator of mammals, said:
We really wanted to get them back together and give Kala another chance to look after him. Once Hasani was sufficiently mobile and physically ready for it, we felt the time was right to try them together again. But despite Kala being very keen to begin with, over time she continued to show the worrying signs of not being able to cope. We really tried everything we could every day over several weeks but in the end we had to accept that it wasn’t working.
Keepers then turned to Kera, a 16-year-old gorilla, to see if she could take on the role.
Luckily, she became the surrogate mother.
Bugg said that Hasani and Kera were introduced to each other.
It started with limited touching and after some time, the 2 began to play with each other properly.
Eventually, the 2 were left alone and keepers watched over monitors.
Talking about Kera, Bugg said:
Although Kera had no rearing experience, she is very intelligent and we have been able to nurture her behaviour. She has seen several other females rear their youngsters and so had a good foundation on which to build on. All the way through hand-rearing, Kera was keen to spend time with Hasani and the two always seemed to get on very well.
Let us hope that the 2 would form a unbreakable bond.
What are your thoughts on Kera becoming a surrogate mother? Let us know what you think about it by leaving a comment in the comments section below!