SEATTLE — “You are not... the mother!”
The births of two western lowland gorillas at Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) have been filled with twists and turns — including a baby swap among the new mothers.
Gorilla Jamani gave birth to a son on May 18, and gorilla Olympia delivered a son on May 24 via cesarean section, an extremely rare procedure on gorillas, due to complications that indicated a non-productive labor, according to WPZ.
The zoo said Jamani picked up Olympia’s son to take care of while Olympia recovered from her procedure.
Jamani’s baby, meanwhile, needed around-the-clock care as he learned to accept bottle feedings. When he bounced back, he was returned to Olympia — intentionally.
“Jamani already had Olympia’s baby in her care, but her own baby was struggling to nurse. Given that this infant had already been taken into human care, we were presented with a rare opportunity and made the pivotal decision to keep Olympia’s baby with Jamani and give Jamani’s baby to Olympia,” said Martin Ramirez, Curator of Mammalogy at Woodland Park Zoo.
Olympia and Jamani showed no signs of distress or jealousy and instead spent most of the night close to each other, separated by the mesh door with the ability to see and hear each other, according to the zoo.