FUENGIROLA, Spain: Carried around by doting mom Buu with the rest of his clan looking proctectively on, the baby gorilla born last week in an Andalusian zoo has quickly inspired affection among his human visitors too.
Jesus Recuero, a vet at the Bioparc Fuengirola, said the as yet unnamed male was born in the early hours of Nov. 7 and by morning he had been cleaned and was being nursed by 24-year-old Buu.
“The mother has done it all herself … fortunately we have not had to intervene and do anything about the baby so far,” he said.
“In the coming months we have a lot of monitoring to do to see how the baby develops, without touching him, because I think the mother won’t let us.”
Zookeeper Irene Arellano, 33, added: “He is super healthy, and it’s all fine with other members of the group. Wefa, the younger female who is nine, comes seeking the little one to look at him, waiting for him to grow up so they can play.”
The park on the Mediterranean coast runs a conservation programme for his species, the critically endangered Western lowland gorilla.
It proudly proclaims him as the first gorilla born in Andalusia – an event too good to miss for retired British couple Geoffrey and Judy Huton.
“The reason for our visit was to come and see the new baby gorilla. Beautiful!” said Geoffrey.
(Writing by Andrei Khalip; editing by John Stonestreet)
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