Baby gorilla at Bristol Zoo now has a surrogate mother

A gorilla born at Bristol Zoo in August 2020 now has a surrogate mum, after being hand-reared by keepers for several months.

A team of six took it in turns to be with Hasani 24 hours a day for seven months, during which he needed feeding up to eight times a day.

But the infant is now being looked at by Kera, a fellow western lowland gorilla at the zoo.

Two months ago, keepers reintroduced Hasani to his mother, Kala, hoping that she would be able to care for him after initially struggling.

“We really wanted to get them back together and give Kala another chance to look after him,” says Lynsey Bugg, curator of mammals at the zoo. “Once Hasani was sufficiently mobile and physically ready for it, we felt the time was right to try them together again.

“But despite Kala being very keen to begin with, over time she continued to show the worrying signs of not being able to cope. We really tried everything we could every day over several weeks but in the end we had to accept that it wasn’t working.”

He was then introduced to 16-year-old Kera, in the hope she could become a surrogate mother for the infant.

Hasani is one of two western lowland gorillas born at the zoo in 2020. Photo: Bristol Zoo Gardens

The introductions began with Hasani and Kera limited to touching through an open partition that Hasani only was able to move through. Keepers stayed close by and on hand but were able to progress to giving them full access to each other after a few days.

Eventually they left the two of them together and watched on TV monitors from a different part of the gorilla house.

“It is a question of using experience and judgement to decide how long to leave them,” says Lynsey.

“It is the first time Kera has looked after an infant. She had a daughter, Afia, five years ago by caesarean section because she had potentially life-threatening pre-eclampsia. But she was so ill that another gorilla, Romina, became a surrogate mum to Afia.

“All the way through hand rearing, Kera was keen to spend time with Hasani and the two always seemed to get on very well.”

Kera hugs Hasani. Photo: Bristol Zoo Gardens

Kera has seen other mothers at the zoo care for youngsters, and Hasani will stay with her for the next three or four years while he grows.

The eight gorillas at Bristol Zoo Gardens are part of an international breeding programme to help safeguard the future of western lowland gorillas, a critically endangered species.

Lynsey, who is an advisor on surrogacy for the gorillas’ EAZA Ex-situ Programme, will now begin plans to introduce Hasani to rest of the gorillas at the zoo. He has already been spending some time with Kala and birth father Jock, and more members of the group will be introduced over time.

“This is a fantastic success,” she says. “We have taken a young gorilla that would otherwise have died and turned him around and he is back with his fellow gorillas inside of a year. It is an amazing achievement.”

Main photo: Bristol Zoo Gardens

Read more: Baby gorilla born at Bristol Zoo