Sadly, the baby gorilla named Jameela at the Ft Worth Zoo said her goodbyes before she moved to Cleveland March 24. The reason she had to move was because during her birth, her mom did not go through the proper hormones that enable the gorilla moms to feel a connection towards their babies. Despite this, the zoo then tried to get the other female gorillas at the zoo to take her in, but sadly, it was to no avail. Since then, a zoo employee has been sitting in the enclosure with Jameela, in a gorilla suit. Obviously, this is not what a baby gorilla should grow up with, so the Ft Worth Zoo did some research and found out there was a gorilla in Cleveland who has taken in multiple babies that were not hers before. The decision was made and she was shipped out on Monday. I asked a zoo employee for some details and this is what she said:
“We tried to get her to adapt to being with the other female gorillas we have here, but she did not end up forming a bond. We made the decision to ship her to Cleveland because there is a female gorilla there that has taken in multiple other foster babies. For now, we have had to sub in one of us to be her “mama”. The job is really fun because you get to hang out with Jameela all day, but it’s also very draining because it’s a 24 hour type thing. Jameela has started to cling to the “human mama” and she is very comfortable right now, but is also not going to grow up with the proper parenting if it’s a human doing all of the “mama” taks.”
While I was at the zoo, I took some other photos of the animals that you can see below.
