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In a world-first, captive-bred gorillas give birth in wild in Africa’s Gabon
The baby western lowland gorilla, classified as a critically endangered species by the IUCN, is thought to have been born on the night of June 13 in the Batéké Plateau National Park.
A baby gorilla has been born in the wild in Gabon to parents who grew up in captivity, a world-first that has boosted the hopes of wildlife conservationists, the zoos announced on Tuesday. The baby western lowland gorilla, classified as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is thought to have been born on the night of June 13 in the Batéké Plateau National Park, a milestone under gorilla reintroduction project.
The teams on the site analysed videos taken from camera traps and saw the mother gorilla, Mayombe, one last time without a baby on June 13 and with a newborn the next morning, concluding that the birth had taken place on the intervening night of June 13-14.
While several other gorillas have been born under this reintroduction program, their parents descended from the wild, were poached and then rehabilitated. Mayombe was born in the ZooParc de Beauval in France on October 21, 2007, and was reintroduced in June 2019. The father gorilla, 15-year-old Djongo, was raised in the Port Lympne Safari Park in southeast England.
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The Aspinall Foundation, which runs the Port Lympne Safari Park, shared a 21-second video of the baby Gorilla from its official Twitter handle, adding that it was “delighted to announce the first ever birth to rewilded, captive-born gorillas!”
Delphine Delord, assistant director of Beauval zoo, told news agency AFP that the birth of the gorilla to captive-born gorillas is very significant world-first for the conservation of this species which is in serious danger of becoming extinct. “The baby is fragile but for the moment Mayombe is holding her new-born in the perfect position and is feeding well,” he added.
Djongo has been recorded several times approaching Mayombe with a tense posture to look at the baby but was turned away by the mother. “Djongo is approaching them very gently. We even saw him touch the baby on the camera traps that turn on when an animal passes,” said Delord.
(With agency inputs)
