Infant gorilla at Pittsburgh Zoo removed from mother's care after infection
Infant gorilla at Pittsburgh Zoo removed from mother's care after infection
May 29, 2013 4:10 pm
By Anya Sostek / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An infant gorilla at the Pittsburgh Zoo has been removed from his mother's care after she developed an infection that interfered with his feeding.
Zoo staff noticed about three weeks ago that Moka, who gave birth to a baby boy on April 12, was pushing him away while nursing. When they examined the Western lowland gorillas, they found that the baby was mildly dehydrated and that Moka had mastitis, an infection in her mammary glands.
"We really had no choice other than to pull the infant into 24-hour round-the-clock care," said Ginger Takle, director of animal care at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. "It's certainly not a decision we take lightly by any means to hand rear a zoo animal."
The baby gorilla is now at the Animal Care Center, being hand-raised and fed human infant formula by zoo staff.
"He is doing better each day but we continue to monitor his progress," said Ms. Takle.
Moka was treated with antibiotics and has recovered well from the mastitis, said Ms. Takle, but her milk supply has now dried up.
This is Moka's second baby boy in the last two years.
Her first son -- the first baby gorilla at the zoo in more than a decade -- died last June just short of four months old.
The zoo's new baby gorilla, who has not been named, is being held 24 hours a day by zoo employees to mimic how he would be cared for by his mother.
The zoo is taking pains to raise him as a gorilla and not a human pet -- when he's strong enough, he will ride on the backs of his caretakers, said Ms. Takle, rather than being carried like a human baby.
The infant is spending several hours a day downstairs in the Tropical Forest to bond with his family, where he can watch them from an adjacent room separated by bars.
"All the members of the family troop are coming up and trying to reach through the bars, touch his head, doing comfort vocalizations," Ms. Takle said. "It's really really positive."
He will also start spending time at the indoor exhibit at the zoo's Tropical Forest while his family is outdoors, and vice versa, where he can familiarize himself with their scent and move around safely.
Ms. Takle and other zoo staff members recently received visitors from the Columbus Zoo, which is known for providing expertise on hand raising animals.
Visitors to the zoo can see him from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily.
He will be re-introduced to his family when he starts eating solid foods and when he can be trained to regularly meet zoo staff to receive his bottle, which Ms. Takle hopes will happen in a matter of months.
The baby gorilla now weighs 10 pounds, said Ms. Takle, and has responded well to his new surroundings.
"He's a lot stronger at this point," she said. "You can see his bulging little biceps. We are just trying to build up his strength."
Infant gorilla at Pittsburgh Zoo removed from mother's care after infection - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
