{"id":326282,"date":"2026-06-07T05:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/326282\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:54:17","slug":"baby-gorilla-jameela-born-at-fort-worth-zoo-is-thriving-in-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/326282\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby gorilla Jameela born at Fort Worth Zoo is thriving in new home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years after moving to a new home, the first baby gorilla born by Cesarean section<\/a> at the Fort Worth Zoo is thriving, her former keepers say.<\/p>\n

On May 13, several members of the team who helped care for Jameela after her premature birth got their first glimpse of the young primate with her surrogate mother at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo<\/a>. Dr. Jamie Walker Erwin, the OB-GYN who delivered the infant gorilla, was also part of the group.<\/p>\n

Primary gorilla keeper Angie Holmes said Jameela was a little shy, but not afraid of her or the other visitors.<\/p>\n

\"Jameela<\/p>\n

Jameela accepts some food through the gorilla enclosure at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Her former Fort Worth Zoo keepers paid her a visit on May 13 and say the 2-year-old western lowland gorilla is thriving in her new home.<\/p>\n

(Fort Worth Zoo staff)<\/p>\n

Photos show Jameela climbing on the wire enclosure, accepting a bit of food through one of the openings and riding on the back of her new mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looks just fantastic,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n

\"Jameela,<\/p>\n

Jameela, the first gorilla to be born by Cesarean section at the Fort Worth Zoo, received a surprise visit from her former keepers on May 13, two years after moving to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.<\/p>\n

(Fort Worth Zoo staff)<\/p>\n

Jameela was born by emergency C-section in January 2024 after her mother, Sekani, began showing symptoms of preeclampsia. Sekani recovered after the birth, but never showed any interest in caring for the infant.<\/p>\n

Zoo staff, including Holmes and primate supervisor Linda Roberts, worked around the clock to fill the gap. They bottle-fed the newborn and wore felt ponchos with long fringes to simulate gorilla hair.<\/p>\n

\"Gorilla<\/p>\n

Gorilla keeper Angie Holmes feeds baby gorilla Jameela on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at the Fort Worth Zoo. Jameela has been under the constant care of Holmes and a multitude of other zoo staff since she was born by Cesarean section.<\/p>\n

(Amanda McCoy\/amccoy@star-telegram.com)<\/p>\n

Roberts said they tried hard to keep Jameela in Fort Worth, but there was never any doubt she needed to be raised by a gorilla. Baby gorillas learn about the world and the social dynamics of their family group, known as a troop, through their mother. A gorilla raised entirely by humans might struggle to integrate into a troop later in life.<\/p>\n

When two attempts to find a surrogate mother<\/a> for Jameela failed, staff made the difficult decision to send her to another zoo. The two-and-a-half-month old infant moved to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in March 2024 and successfully bonded with Fredrika<\/a>, also known as Freddy, the oldest member of the western lowland gorilla troop. Freddy had already raised four offspring of her own and adopted a fifth after his mother failed to care for him.<\/p>\n

Holmes and Roberts have eagerly followed the little gorilla\u2019s progress in Cleveland. They planned a trip to see her for Holmes\u2019 birthday, but it fell through last minute when their flight was canceled. On May 13, Holmes, who still gets emotional when she talks about Jameela, had a hard time walking up to the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew how powerful it would be to see her with a gorilla,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jameela is the eighth and youngest member of the Cleveland zoo\u2019s gorilla group<\/a>. Holmes and Roberts said it was a dream come true to see her in a family unit, complete with an older brother \u2014 Kayembe \u2014 who likes to annoy her.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth Zoo staff and medical professionals who cared for Jameela, a western lowland gorilla born by Cesarean section, paid a surprise visit to the now 2-year-old primate at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo on May 13.<\/p>\n

(Fort Worth Zoo staff)<\/p>\n

The 2-year-old Jameela loves to climb and explore her environment. \u201cShe has a little sass too,\u201d according to Holmes, and has developed a reputation for getting into mischief.<\/p>\n

Roberts described feeding Jameela with a bottle through the enclosure. At one point, the little gorilla reached out and grabbed Roberts\u2019 finger.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not afraid of people,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

While memory in animals works differently than in humans, Holmes said she\u2019d like to think Jameela remembers the love and care the Fort Worth keepers showered on her as a newborn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud to say she\u2019s from Texas,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cProud to say she\u2019s from Fort Worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8 More breaking news:<\/p>\n

\u25fd\ufe0f Sign up for Star-Telegram news alerts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years after moving to a new home, the first baby gorilla born by Cesarean section at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116660,116662,116658,116,118,117,7227,116663,116661,116659,5482],"class_list":["post-326282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-angie-holmes","tag-cesarean-section","tag-cleveland-metroparks-zoo","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-fort-worth-zoo","tag-gorilla-hair","tag-jameela","tag-surrogate-mother","tag-western-lowland-gorilla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}