Check Out This New Mama Gorilla Touchingly Care For Her New Born Baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9qe2uPNiV0

Recently the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute released an extremely touching video of a mama gorilla cradling her new born child. Calaya a 15-year female gorilla gave birth to her son who has been named Moke according to the zoo. That by itself was quite the achievement since it is the first birth of a male Western lowland gorilla as the zoo in nearly a decade.

Cradling and kissing her son

The name Moke means “Little One” or “Junior” in the Lingala language and this cutie certainly does live up to his name when you seem him being cradled and kissed on his forehead by his mum. Moke’s dad is a 26-year-old gorilla called Barak and the zoo decided that he should pair with Calaya to have a baby based on the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan. Moke was conceived at the end of last year.

The birth is both special and signficant

Meredith Bastian the Zoo’s curator of primates says that Moke’s birth is indeed both special and significant, not just for the whole family at the Zoo but also to the entire species which is critically endangered. Ms Bastian said the goal of her team was to enable Calaya to successfully conceive as best as they could and given the fact that she is a first-time mother it required a lot of dedication and patience on the part of the team. Ms Bastian says she is very proud of both her team and Calaya.

The baby is likely to thrive

For its part, the Zoo issued a statement saying it was cautiously optimistic the baby gorilla will thrive. Its statement concludes by saying Zoo staff intend to leave the mama gorilla to bond and care for her new born without any interference. Check out the video, when you see how tenderly Calaya holds Moke and the way she shows her affection by giving him kisses it really does illustrate that there is very little difference between humans and gorillas when it comes to our children.