Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden
After ten years, a gorilla baby was born at the Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden. The baby was born on January 5 and, thus, is the first newborn of the year in our institution. The baby and mother can be visited from Thursday, January 14 at the Apes’ House.
A gorilla baby was born in our Zoo on Tuesday, January 5 at 9:13 AM. The last such joyous event in Budapest took place in 2000. The baby and mother, the nine-year-old N’Yaounda are well, although it is uncertain whether the nurturing of the baby gorilla will go without problems. The keepers are monitoring if the baby is feeding well and if the mother is looking after her young properly. This is N’Yaounda’s first offspring, and she cannot be considered experienced in caring for her baby.
Since the baby is fed with reassuring frequency and the mother’s behavior remains normal, and the other members of the group behave calmly, we opened the Apes' House for public on Thursday, January 14. Volunteers supervise the visitors' area for providing the less disturbance. For the sake of the gorilla family's peace and quiet we kindly ask our visitors to avoid loud sounds and use of flash in the territory.
Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) have been living in our Zoo since 1989. In the last two decades, three babies were born from the now 33-year-old Liesel and the 3 years younger Golo, the two animals that arrived in 1989. Among them the youngest male Ebobo still lives here. Besides them, two young females arrived in Budapest in the last few years. Iringa came from France in 2000 and N’Yaounda, the mother of the newborn, came in 2008 from the zoo of the Dutch city of Arnhem famous of its bridge.
Approximately 750 western gorillas live in zoos throughout the world. Among this population, there were altogether 16 births in the last 12 months. It is safe to say that gorilla births are quite rare around the world. This is, however, not characteristics of zoos only. The trend is similar to the reproduction strategy of gorillas living in the wild. The essence of this strategy is that gorillas reproduce quite rarely and give birth to only one offspring at a time. The low birth rate is compensated with well-developed nurturing of their young, a behavior that provides better chances for reaching adulthood. The first gorilla born in a zoo was born in the Columbus Zoo in the USA in 1956.
Why “western” the western gorilla?
According to our current scientific classification, there are two species of gorillas, the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei). Both species are divided into two subspecies. The two subspecies of the eastern gorillas are the eastern mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) and the eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri). The two subspecies of the western gorillas are the Diehl-gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) and the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). The gorillas at the Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden are western lowland gorillas. This subspecies is native to Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Central African Republic. According to its conservation status, these gorillas are classified as critically endangered.
