Tokyo Zoo’s Baby Gorilla Gets Star Treatment
2009-11-19 11:33
Meet Japan’s latest animal star. She’s snuggling up to her 26-year-old mother, "Momoko." The baby was born to the Western Lowland Gorilla clan at the Ueno Zoo, in Tokyo. She now weighs about four pounds.
Animal lovers are already flocking to the zoo to try and get a glimpse of the baby gorilla. But the zoo says the toddler will be kept indoors with her mother until the weather warms up in spring.
Gorillas are very difficult to breed out of their natural habitats because they only mate on compatibility. For zookeepers at Ueno Zoo, this newborn baby deserves all the star treatment it gets.
Gorilla keeper Ryo Imanishi says the staff worked around the clock to make sure the delivery went smoothly.
[Ryo Imanishi, Tokyo Gorilla Zookeeper]:
"The baby came out in just under two hours, whereas the mother spent three full days giving birth the last time. We were fully prepared to spend long hours, but it all happened within a blink of an eye so we were very surprised. Now the mother spends every second with the baby. She would hold the baby in one hand and walk around making sure that the baby stays in her arm."
Western Lowland Gorillas mostly live in forests and swamps across Africa. There’s about 150,000 to 200,000 of them in the world. But that number is decreasing every year due to poaching and deforestation.
The newborn star in Tokyo has yet to be named, but zoo officials are receiving ideas from the public. They hope to unveil the baby gorilla to the public by March 2010.
