Baby gorilla at Calgary Zoo doing 'much better,' keepers say

After a tense few weeks following her birth, the newest addition to the Calgary Zoo's gorilla troop appears to be getting better.

Kiojagave birth to a baby gorilla in early March. While Kioja had been doing a great job of taking care of her daughter, zookeepers became concerned that the little one wasn't thriving.

Now, curator MaluCelli says the baby seems to be on the mend.

"She's doing much better," Cellisaid. "She's still very small and quite thin but we're happy with the signs that we're seeing. She's quite active and mom is doing a phenomenal job, so is most of the family."

• MORE CALGARY NEWS |$4.5M in street improvements start in Kensington this week
• MORE CALGARY NEWS |Extremely warm and dry winter leaves farmers eyeing the skies

A stressful start

The first few weeks of the baby's life were stressful for the zoo's gorilla team, Celli said. Keepers were on 24-hour rounds ensuring the little one was nursing well and that Kioja was being attentive to her daughter.

"The gorilla team have been superstars and I think until we saw signs that the baby was nursing well on her own,we couldn't really relax properly," she said.

Family adjusts

Kioja's daughter is the first gorilla to be born at the Calgary Zoo since 2008. That's mean the rest of the troop has had to get used to the new member of the family.

"Dad is doing a great job as always, we knew he would," said Celli of the silverback, Kakinga."One of the other females, Kioja's half sister, is super curious but being quitegentle."

But Yewende, who was born at the zoo in 2008, seems to be having some teenager-like problems, Celli added.

"The youngest one is turning into a bit of a brat," Celli said.

"I think she knows that she's no longer the centre of all attention and she's no longer the baby so she's throwing some tantrums around, but it's to be expected."

Name needed

It can be difficult for parents to choose a name for their child, but it's even more challenging when you have an entire team of zookeepersmaking the decision.

Celli said the team is trying to narrow down possible names for thebaby gorilla and then either allow the public or donors to decide what to name her.

"There's alot of keepers on the gorilla team so we can't seem to reach an agreement," she said.

The gorilla exhibit at the Zoo has fully reopened.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener