Another baby gorilla was born in Prague Zoo!

On Saturday 24^th April 2010 the female of lowland gorilla Kijivu gave birth to a healthy baby in Prague Zoo. It is her third offspring. The birth took place in the inside range in front of the eyes of the visitors and lasted only for about 10 minutes. The baby came to the world at 10.51.

„The birth was so fast that the baby was born just at the moment when our keepers were asking the visitors to leave the pavilion,“ informed Miroslav Bobek, the director of Prague Zoo.

During the night Kijivu behaved as always and in the morning she had her regular breakfast in her bedroom. However, right before entering the inside exposition the group was nervous a bit. Kijivu carried Tatu on her back and refused to release him.

„We became suspicious because Tatu under normal circumstances moves around the range independently. Just after Kamba took over Tatu I noticed the foetal sac at the anus of Kijivu. It was clear that the birth had already started,“ Zdeněk Pišl, the keeper is describing the whole event.

In a couple of minutes after the birth the baby started looking for the mother’s breast and suck. It seems that everything has been going in an ideal way so far. Just Moja shows some signs of jealousy.

Kijivu was born in Apeldoorn and then lived in Sydney and in 2003 she moved to Prague Zoo. She lives here in a group with the silverback male Richard, two females Shinda and Kamba and her two previous children. These are Moja (a female born in December 2004) and Tatu (a male born in May 2007).