Zookeepers dress up as gorillas to raise baby abandoned by its mum
Zookeepers are dressing up as gorillas to care for a baby ape rejected by its birth after is premature birth.
Staff at Fort Worth Zoo in Texas have been donning a ‘gorilla suit’ made of fur-like strands mimicking the mother’s fur since mum Sekani abandoned baby Jameela.
Doctors delivered Jameela by performing a rare emergency c-section on Sekani after she went into labour five weeks early.
Jameela was the first gorilla born through caesarean section at Fort Worth.
It was only the third birth in the zoo’s 115-year history.
But Sekani struggled to bond with her newborn daughter following the birth on January 5.
Zookeepers have had to give Jameela round-the-clock care, including by wearing a suit designed to teach her how to grip onto a future surrogate mum.
It also limits human contact, which they hope will allow Jameela to bond with her replacement mother.
The zoo is currently training another female gorilla, called Gracie, to take on the role.
A spokesperson for the zoo said: ‘The gorilla-like jacket is used in part to limit human-animal contact, but mainly so that Jameela can get used to holding on to “fur” while moving around.
‘Baby gorillas depend on their mothers for locomotion for the first year or two of their lives.
‘We’re working with Jameela to develop her muscles and tone by allowing her to hold onto this gorilla-like jacket, rather than holding her as we would a human infant.’
Jameela was named in part after Dr Jamie Walker Erwin, who led the surgery that brought the baby gorilla into the world.
Neonatologist Dr Robert Ursprung and Dr Dennis Occkiogrosso were also part of the surgical team.
All three are more used to human patients than animal ones.
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