Just Hanging Out

Bomassa and his mother Jamani are in the foreground, while Olympia sits behind. Apollo is practicing beating his chest. These days, the gorillas are picking at the grass and eating some. They do this in the Spring when the grass is tender and tasty.

Anything Goes

Remember we said Olympia is a little light on her discipline of her son, Apollo?

Bomassa's Big Belly

Bomassa loves to eat, and it shows! I am told that he is the easier brother to train. When the gorillas are learning their routines, they get treats in return. For example the keepers might need for Bomassa to turn his ear towards them, which would be useful, for example,  if they need to check for  infection. If he turns the ear,  he gets a bite of kiwi, one of his favorites. Apollo gets the same opportunity, but is less interested in food, so he is not making quite so much progress with his training.

Keeping Tabs on Apollo

Jamani had been resting under the overhang, keeping warm in the straw as she often does after lunch. Apollo showed up as she was cuddling with Bomassa. If you've been following these pages, you can guess why. He wanted to do a little wrestling with his big brother! And Bomassa is always game for that.  So the boys started baring their teeth, and biting on each other and raising their arms to each other and so on and so forth.

Jamani will tolerate a little bit of that, but she has her limit. It must be kind of annoying when you are just trying to take a nap and the little boys just want to cause a big ruckus. Eventually, she calms things down, normally by restraining Apollo. You can see her putting her arm on his leg here. In a very gentle way, she's looking him right in the eyes, and letting Apollo know that it's time to leave his big brother alone for a little while.

Hands Off Approach to Mothering

Olympia Gorilla does not go in much for discipline.  Here we see her in her typical nonchalant pose.  She is sitting by herself, while her son Apollo has wandered away. He's visiting Jamani and Bomassa and he's ready to cause a little trouble.  She looks up to see what's happening, but that's about all she's likely to do.

Look at Apollo reaching his arm up to Bomassa as his mother looks on.  He's going to get into it! Jamani will be stepping in momentarily if things start to get out of hand, but Olympia will keep her distance. She is not worried about those half-brothers getting a few scratches and scrapes.  I have never seen her intervene.