Apollo Gorilla Comes to Visit Daddy

Silverback loves his babies!

N'kosi gets along great with his sons. The boys like to come over and hang out with their dad for a few minutes now and again.  Here comes that little ball of cuteness we know as Apollo, the son of the dominant female, Olympia. Due to this relationship,  the Gorilla Team and the Zoo Volunteers seem to think that Apollo is the favorite son. I am not entirely sure about that. I have seen plenty of affection directed towards big brother Bomassa, but here we see Apollo, at the age of not quite ten months, sauntering over. He looks like he is walking, though he is actually using all four limbs. Gorilla babies can walk pretty ably on two feet from a young age, and I guess that's because they have those marvelous long arms to steady them, so they can practice quite easily all by themselves. Anyway, Apollo walks on past and then N'kosi does what he does so often. He puts his finger near a certain region and then he smells it. In this way, N'kosi keeps track of the scent of both his boys.  Every time I have seen one of the boys with N'kosi, he has checked that aroma.

Sad Days for Acacia Gorilla of North Carolina Zoo

Sweet Acacia Has Lost Her Baby

Acacia Gorilla, February 2013

Acacia  had such a long labor and required surgery.  I was afraid for the baby, and afraid for her, and then when the baby was born strong and healthy, and when Acacia quickly came out of anasthesia, there was such a sense of  relief. My next hope was she would recognize that baby as hers, and take naturally to mothering the little angel. How amazing that she got through all those hurdles. News articles seem to indicate that after zoo personnel bottlefed the baby for two days, Acacia was doing very well with the idea of being a mother and gladly accepted him in her arms. She's had plenty of good modeling from Jamani and Olympia, that's certain. And I know Acacia would make a fantastic mother, too. She is very gentle and loving, as is evident when she cuddles so tenderly with Bomassa.

But then sometime on Tuesday night, after the baby had been returned to Acacia, something terribly sad happened, and the baby smothered. It's not entirely uncommon for a mother gorilla, particularly a first time gorilla mother, accidentally to roll over on a very small baby such that he can not get air. This is what zoo personnel believe has happened. We are all  so very sad that this has been the end result for Acacia and the amazing little baby boy gorilla we have all lost.

It really is a very sad event. And yet, not uncommon. Even in the wild, gorilla moms sometimes roll over on their young in their sleep, and lose their precious babies to suffocation or to crushing.  Acacia will be hurting very badly over this, just as any one of us would upon losing a child. Gorilla mothers are known to carry their babies around with them after a death, sometimes for days, until they can come to grips with the loss. I do not know how Acacia is reacting just now because I've not yet been out to talk to zoo personnel and the volunteers. We may know more later, but for now, let's simply hold Acacia and her lost little dear in our hearts and wish them well.

JOY! A Healthy Baby BOY!

Saturday was a fun day at the Forest Glade at the North Carolina Zoo. The place was packed with families enjoying their Fourth of July weekend. Unfortunately the gorilla exhibit was closed, but the volunteers gave the good news to the waves of disappointed visitors as they kept arriving in greater and greater numbers. The family was unavailable because they were busy behind the scenes with Acacia, rallying her on as she labored to deliver a baby!  Visitors were delighted to learn all about the process, and made the connection-gorillas, at the time of a birth, are very much like people! Baby Bomassa was cuddling with Acacia and trying to make her feel better through her contractions. And N'kosi was standing guard and making sure no one bothered her. And by no one, we mean Olympia, lol. One of the volunteers was saying that Daddy N'kosi would be coming out any minute with a box of cigars to hand out. Or would it be carrots!  That's Nick's favorite, after all.
But it did not happen quickly at all. Poor thing. She had started labor at around 7:30 in the morning and was still in that condition at zoo closing time, and all the way through to Sunday morning. Things appeared to be going well, but eventually it was just taking too long, and she needed to be sent off for care. Zookeepers rejoiced when the sonogram showed a beating heart; preparations were made for surgery when it became clear this was the best option. Acacia is a very small gorilla and this being her first delivery, that birth canal was perhaps just a little too narrow for the simple delivery we all had hoped for.

Surgery was successful and Acacia was doing well when I left the zoo Sunday at closing time. She had woken up from anasthesia and was recovering well, as the mother of a healthy and strong baby boy. Naturally,  I have no mother-and-newborn photos to show you, because all this has happened behind the scenes. The hope is that Acacia will be able to nurse through her recovery and keep and raise the baby, but of course, she's got an incision now, which will need to heal. This won't be easy for her, but let's hope she can manage. It would break my heart if Acacia were unable to mother her own baby. In the gorilla world, the moms have increased status and seem to get a little more respect in the troop and  I would like to see Acacia follow that path. She's been a bit of a loner in all the time I have been visiting, often going off by herself when the two moms Jamani and Olympia are busy looking after Bomassa and Apollo. I have been hoping this birth would result in Acacia being able to join in the important work of mothering.

Acacia has been an affectionate auntie for Bomassa

Olympia might be willing to care the new baby if needed

And what if Acacia is unable to nurse the baby, or rejects the baby due to the pain of her incision? The good news is that Olympia, pictured here, has shown herself to be willing and able to nurse two babies simultaneously. She once absconded with Bomassa and nursed him AND her own baby Apollo for a full five days, after all.  And she is still nursing Apollo, so she's got plenty of milk. Zookeepers believe there is every chance that Olympia would immediately assume mothering duties for Baby Gorilla if Acacia refuses to do so.
 
Let's keep Acacia and Baby in our thoughts this week in these critical early days!

Bomassa Scales the Heights!

Major Milestone for Baby Bomassa Gorilla

Bomassa Gorilla of the North Carolina Zoo is climbing all the way up! Yes, that's our boy, all the way up there on the top left, mouthing on the stub of a branch. Directly below him, Acacia, set to become a first time mom this month,  gazes up at him. And on the right, some ways distant,  Jamani hangs out. She is not that concerned. Obviously, Bomassa has demonstrated to her that he is an able climber. This was all happening yesterday, July 3, between heavy downpours, so those logs are not even dry!

Acacia looks up at Bomassa while mother Jamani has a rest on the left

At fifteen pounds, Bomassa is a little smaller than his younger half-brother Apollo. But in terms of skill, big brother is way ahead. He started beating his chest some months ago; Apollo has yet to do so. Bomassa seems steadier on his feet, and seems to get around a little more quickly. It's possible that Apollo too is climbing up the structure everyone calls the tree, but I've not yet seen it.

Bomassa turns one year old soon. Follow him on Twitter!

You would think he would have trouble negotiating those big fat logs, but no.  His small arms, hands and feet  can handle them very well as he scales upwards. Of course he might reach down for his mom once in awhile, or check to see that she's nearby. 

Bomassa reaches down towards his mama

Once Bomassa goes all the way up on top, he can just sit and relax up there with his mom. His dad, the 21 year old N'kosi, makes a nest up there frequently. Visitors observing this often make allusion to the King of the Hill. But he's a self-assured silverback and does not seem to mind sharing the perch every now and then. With Bomassa climbing so skilfully already, at only ten months old, there's no telling what he'll be up to next time you come out and see him at the zoo!  

Jamani and Bomassa chillin' on the top of  the tree

Baby Gorillas up the Wall

Gorilla Yoga

Baby Bomassa Gorilla, nine months old in this photo,  is perfectly adept at standing. He and his baby brother Apollo are both fascinated with the wall these days. They like to stand up and stretch their arms up as far as they can go. Here you get a really good view of Bomassa's big hands and you can see that his arms are longer than his short little legs. Mother Jamani is never far from her son. She is looking on,  in the photo below. That wall is one of her favorite places to relax.

Bomassa stretches as Jamani keeps watch

Speaking of Jamani, her brother is now living in the Carolinas too.  Ajari Gorilla has recently arrived at  Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina where he will be living with Chaka and Mike in a bachelor group. He is twelve years old now, and like Jamani, was born in San Diego.You can look at a family tree for Riverbanks Zoo to find out more about the gorillas Ajari will be living with.

Copperheads in the Gorilla Area at the North Carolina Zoo

A Snake or a Toy

It was a nice, calm morning on Tuesday, not too crowded, but a bunch of us were at the glass, appreciating the gorillas. Everyone but Acacia hung out for hours and hours right there at the covered overlook. The boys were having a grand time playing in the big black buckets, climbing in,  climbing out, tussling a little, but being very gentle. Usually they show a lot of teeth when they tussle, but Tuesday, they were just being good pals.  Suddenly, one of the kid visitors exclaims Hey, there's a snake! And sure enough there was, slithering right through the straw you see surrounding the bucket. This was just a little snake, a slender snake. From my distance, it looked pretty much like a garter snake or something. No big deal, it just did not seem like much of a problem.

Apollo, left, and Bomassa, playing before they notice the copperhead

The boys were fascinated; they peered down at that reptile from just a few inches away. Something new, something unusual, something moving around, seems like a good toy, after all, something to have some fun with.  So friendly Apollo hovered over the snake and sat on it!  I lost sight, but when Apollo got up, I couldn't see it any more. One of the keepers was right there observing all this. She did not see a yellow tip on the tail. That's one of the identifying marks of a young copperhead snake. So without that mark, she was not overly worried. But the head........the head was not a good shape. A harmless snake has a round snout, whereas any viper has a much broader head. This head seemed a little broad. So there was reason to be worried!

N'kosi came around the wall and took charge. I am not sure who first alerted him. It's possible one of the ladies--probably Olympia-- made a vocalization we could not hear. The adults were taking the situation seriously. With no panic or screaming, Olympia picked up Apollo and carted him a good fifteen feet away and sat facing the area where the snake was obviously still lying. Jamani stayed behind the bucket with Bomassa. Acacia had been off in the rear of the area and there she stayed, being very pregnant.  The majestic N'Kosi had quite a reaction!  He stared down that snake,  while not getting too close. And then he went away. But did he turn and go? Not on your life. Our N'kosi kept his eye on that snake the entire time, and slowly  backed away. None of us could  see the snake anymore......but N'Kosi kept going back over there to check out that snake. And each time, he must have still been seeing it, because he would carefully back away once again.  

Above, Apollo and Bomassa play, unaware of the danger.  Silverback N'kosi comes around the wall to check things out. Olympia, who may have alerted N'kosi to the presence of the copperhead,  grabs Apollo and takes him a safe distance away where they can watch the snake from a distance

The keeper mentioned that if the moms had seen this snake first, they would have immediately carted off those babies. But no, it was the babies who first noticed. So Apollo and Bomassa, who know nothing of the fangs and the poisonous tongues of snakes, were very much in danger. Why? Because it did turn out to be a copperhead, and because they did not have enough life experience to stay away.

Uwharrie Mountains Home to Copperheads

So that brings us to a question.......what does a zoo do to control the possibility of an encounter with a poisonous snake? At some zoos, there would be little chance of this. But the North Carolina Zoo, in the Uwharrie Mountains, happens to be the native habitat to numerous copperheads. There's no way of keeping native snakes out of the exhibits.  The animals simply have to learn. Olympia and Jamani and N'kosi clearly learned the snake lesson somewhere along the way, perhaps by an encounter with a snake bite from a harmless snake, or perhaps by observation. The boys are going to have to learn not to mess with snakes. Hopefully they can absorb this lesson vicariously,  and won't have to suffer a snake bite.  A bite from a harmless snake would be enough to ruin the day of one of our little sweeties, but a bite from a venomous snake could easily end in tragedy. Copperhead venom is not as potent as that of other snakes, but a dose of copperhead poison could kill when injected into a small gorilla baby body of only some fifteen pounds.

N'kosi watches that snake!

Proficient Reaction of Zoo Personnel Keeps the Baby Gorillas Safe

This time, since the keeper was on hand to observe this near disaster, she checked for that snake after most of us thought it had simply slithered away.  It hadn't.  She was not sure of the variety, but went to seek identification from one of the zoo's reptile experts. Before making the call, she had asked one of the volunteers to keep a close watch so the location of the snake would be known.  The snake expert arrived and confirmed the identification. That was definitely a copperhead! Next, the keeper went back to call those animals out of the area. She just called their names, and off they went, to safety. She checked Apollo carefully and found no evidence of any bite, thank goodness. Meanwhile, in went the snake expert, to place the copperhead in a bucket and relocate him to a different part of the park, far away from the animals. And that's the happy ending: due to the vigilance and expertise of the personnel at the North Carolina Zoo, the threat was removed immediately. But not before Apollo sat on a poisonous snake and lived to tell the tale.

In Which Our Curious Gorilla Boys at the NC Zoo Investigate a Venomous Snake

Yes, that's a copperhead and yes, Apollo, our beloved nine month old gorilla sat on it. This is worst thing to happen at the zoo since his big brother Bomassa escaped one night. Oh wait, that Bomassa escape story was a complete April Fools fib. This encounter with the copperhead wasn't any joke.  Details in our regular blog post on Thursday.