CINCINNATI (WKRC) \u2014 The Cincinnati Zoo welcomed a new addition on Saturday with the birth of an adorable baby gorilla to mom Gladys and dad Mbeli. <\/p>\n
The birth took place at 8:23 a.m. following a night of monitoring Gladys’s behavior.<\/p>\n
“They were actually monitoring her behavior through the night and they noticed her being a little more restless, so we kind of had an idea something was happening,” said Victoria Morelli, the zoological manager of primates. “So, that’s when we started monitoring her as closely as we could, making sure she was comfortable, assessing her and the troop’s behavior and really just being there for her as a support system. She did really well on her own, and we got to be there for the birth, which was very exciting.”<\/p>\n
The arrival has sparked excitement throughout the zoo, especially for Morelli. <\/p>\n
“It’s hard to describe in words. I’m just over the moon. The whole team is, the troop, everybody is excited for this big moment for Gladys,” said Morelli.<\/p>\n
Gladys, who overcame significant odds after breaking her arm in 2024 and receiving a first-of-its-kind titanium 3D-printed cast from GE Aerospace, is now cradling her newborn. <\/p>\n
“We’ve seen all the right signs. Baby is nursing well. Baby seems strong and is clinging well. Gladys has been carrying him well and very delicately and figuring things out for a first-time mom.”<\/p>\n
The process of bringing the baby gorilla into the world involved careful planning and the perfect pairing of parents. <\/p>\n
“We have the Gorilla S.S.P., which is a group that monitors all the gorillas in the U.S. population,” said Morelli. “They help support breeding recommendations so we can map out who is a genetic match for who and then how do we figure out the social management and troop needs, so that the overall animal welfare is considered as well.”<\/p>\n
After months of research and analysis, 23-year-old silverback Mbeli was brought in from the Denver Zoo. <\/p>\n
“It feels wonderful because we’re contributing to a bigger population goal. We’re contributing to the life and the experience and the welfare of this troop here and really just encouraging a next generation of advocacy for gorilla conservation, which is a huge part of our mission here at the Cincinnati Zoo,” said Morelli.<\/p>\n
The zoo plans to open Gorilla World soon but the schedule will depend on Gladys’s behavior and comfort. The baby gorilla has yet to be named, and the zoo is inviting the public to offer suggestions on its social media pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI (WKRC) \u2014 The Cincinnati Zoo welcomed a new addition on Saturday with the birth of an adorable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[31264,97688,28403,19232,63634,104418,106275,12840,79,201],"class_list":["post-178942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-baby","tag-birth","tag-cincinnati-zoo","tag-conservation","tag-gladys","tag-gorilla","tag-mbeli","tag-primates","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}