There’s a new baby – and a new mother – at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Bana, 16, a western lowland gorilla and first-time mother, gave birth to a baby girl on Nov. 16, zoo officials announced Monday. The newborn is the 49th gorilla born at the zoo and the first since her half-brother Amare was born there in 2005.
“The mother and infant have really progressed over the last couple of days,” said Maureen Leahy, the zoo’s curator of primates. “When the infant cried, initially [Bana] used to walk around. Now she knows to stay put and rock the baby.”
Dad is Kwan, a 22-year-old silverback gorilla who is also father to Amare. On Monday, the baby tightly gripped Bana’s right shoulder as Bana feasted on willow browse. The grip is a sign of the baby’s health, Leahy said.
Zoo staff confirmed Bana conceived in March by analyzing hormones in her fecal matter and dipping a human pregnancy test in a urine sample. Leahy learned of the birth around 6:30 a.m. Nov. 16 when she arrived at work.
“She already had the infant cleaned off and was tending to it,” Leahy said. “The other [gorillas] were very curious. They actually clued me in.”
In 2010, Bana moved from the Brookfield Zoo to the Lincoln Park Zoo under the species survival plan that matches potential mates to help perpetuate the critically endangered western lowland gorillas.
The Regenstein Center for African Apes has been closed to the public since the birth to give all the gorillas time to adjust to the new addition. Zoo visitors can get their first look at the new baby when the center reopens at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
