Gorilla Babies are Small

Mature gorillas are big

As much as I visit gorillas, I can't get over the size. Here is a photo which shows how small Bomassa is, relative to his mother. Just her head alone was bigger than all of him, when I took this photo a few months back. And you can see that her hand is huge as well, much bigger than any human hand, and way greater than Bomassa's entire leg. But this will change quickly in the coming years. When Bomassa is all grown up, he's likely to be about twice as big as his mother.

Jamani Gorilla holds Son Bomassa

Jamani is still holding onto that leg much of the time, by the way, when she is out in the open with her son. That way she can keep the boy gorilla nearby so that she can protect him if necessary.  Interestingly, the keepers tell me that when Jamani and Bomassa are secure in their sleeping quarters, she lets him go entirely free. He becomes a bouncing terror on the climbing structures he has access to back there.