This newborn monkey is completely lovely.
The Washington Zoo welcomed a newborn western lowland gorilla on Saturday – an exciting addition to its critically endangered species.
Zoologists at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute found the unnamed baby in the arms of Calaya’s 20-year-old mother shortly after 6 a.m., meaning he was born during the night. announced the zoo.
“We’re extremely completely happy to welcome a latest infant to our western lowland gorilla unit,” Becky Malinsky, a primate curator, said in an announcement.
The newborn’s gender is yet to be discovered – zoo staff leave a couple of days of distance between themselves and the mother-child pair to permit them to bond.
The child is the second child of Calaya and Baraka’s 31-year-old father. The couple welcomed Moke in 2018 following the breeding recommendations of the Zoo and Aquarium Association’s Species Survival Plan to bolster the species’ declining population.
The latest member of the clan – which zoologists are “cautiously optimistic” will survive – was also born under the same guidelines.
“Calaya is an experienced mother and I’m confident that she’s going to take excellent care of this baby as she did together with her first offspring, Moke,” said Malinsky. “It was great to see her caring and fun side come out.”
Zoologists are especially excited to see Moke, the youngest member of the squad, interact along with his newborn sibling.
Western lowland gorillas are listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature attributable to habitat loss in Africa’s forests, disease, and poaching.
Scientists estimate that the variety of wild western lowland gorillas has declined by 60% over the last 20 to 25 years, with a few third of the total population found in protected areas affected by Ebola in the last 15 years, the National Zoo said.
Over 360,000 gorillas still inhabit the forests of western Equatorial Africa, but 80% of them live outside protected habitats.