Success! Baby Gorilla Jameela Is Bonding with Her New Mom

Jameela, the baby gorilla born via emergency cesarean surgery at the Fort Worth Zoo in January and sent to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo  last month in search of a foster mother, has apparently found a caring mom at her new home.

Fort Worth Zoo officials made the decision to move Jameela after her birth mother Sekani and two other female gorillas chosen as potential surrogates failed to bond with her. Avery Elander, the Fort Worth Zoo’s director of marketing and public relations, said at the time that repeated attempts were made to reunite the baby with Sekani after she recovered from the emergency delivery, all to no avail, so Jameela had been under the care of human zookeepers.

Finding the baby gorilla a new home was necessary, Elander said, because “our goal has always been for Jameela to be raised by gorillas.”

The Cleveland zoo released a video update Wednesday showing that the zoo’s continuing efforts to get Jameela’s new mom Fredrika (aka Freddy) to bond with her adopted daughter have been successful.

“It has been going really well,” said the zoo’s animal curator Dr. Elena Less. “Freddy picked her up, she’s putting her on her back and letting her ride on her back …

Baby Jameela (Screeenshot from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo YouTube video)

“As the day progressed, we started to see a lot more bonding between Freddy and Jameela. She was carrying her almost all of the time, putting her in nests, and setting up nests for her and laying next to her, and then we were so excited to see Jameela nursing from Freddy. We’ve seen it twice and we do feel that Jameela’s getting quite a bit of nutrition from that. We are continuing to ask Freddy to bring her over for bottles as well, and Freddy has been doing a great job of doing that.”

“We were delighted to see Fredrika pick up Jameela, and the additional positive bonding cues of constant holding and nursing have us remaining optimistic for continued, long-term success,” Elander said. “As difficult as it was to have Jameela leave Fort Worth, we knew it was what she needed.

“We’re grateful for this partnership with the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and are just one step closer to reaching our ultimate goal of having Jameela fully integrated into a gorilla troop.”

Jameela was born Jan. 5 – the third gorilla birth in the zoo’s 115-year history but the first born via cesarean section, a procedure that required life-saving care for the mother and premature infant gorilla and involved a number of non-veterinary medical experts.

The surgery was performed by the Fort Worth Zoo veterinary team with assistance from Dr. Jamie Walker Erwin, board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology; neonatologist Robert Ursprung; Dennis Occkiogrosso, CRNA; and supporting experts.