Rare baby lowland gorilla born at the Moscow Zoo

The Moscow Zoo welcomes the birth of a rare lowland gorilla cub. This species is on the verge of extinction in the wild and is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The female baby is only a few weeks old. She is 40 cm tall, and weighs one and a half kg. By eight months, the small gorilla, who will soon receive a name, will begin to walk. In the meantime, she spends all her time in her mother’s arms.

The newborn’s diet mainly consists of breast milk, but very soon she will start eating adult food: a variety of vegetables and fruits, birch and willow branches with juicy foliage, cottage cheese and yoghurt. Also gorillas enjoy drinking green and black tea and fruit juices.

“The birth of the baby lowland gorilla is a significant event not only for our zoo, but also for the international zoo community. This species is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as critically endangered. Creating a back-up genetically diverse population in a zoo environment will help save these unique primates from extinction. In recent years, we have achieved significant success and regularly receive healthy offspring. Grownup cubs go to leading zoos of Europe, produce their own offspring and thus contribute to the preservation of the species,” said Svetlana Akulova, general director of the Moscow Zoo.

She added that the Moscow Zoo is home to a group of eight lowland gorillas, headed by a 20-year-old male named Vizuri (arrived from the Basel Zoo, Switzerland) and a 23-year-old female named Kira (the newborn gorilla’s mother, who came from the Krefeld Zoo, Germany).

Lowland gorillas are the largest and most peaceful members of the great apes family. In the wild, they still inhabit Central Africa and Equatorial Guinea. Their population is shrinking due to deforestation, destruction of forage lands and poaching. In the wild, lowland gorillas prefer to live in tropical forests, as well as in mangroves (evergreen deciduous forests). Primates are active during daylight hours, and at night they sleep in peculiar nests, which they build from broken branches and foliage on trees or on the ground.

Gorillas are social animals that live in groups of between five and 30 members. The head is always an adult male. There is a rigid hierarchy between all members, and each individual has a special status. They maintain good relations within the group and in every possible way prove their loyalty to one another.

“Our lowland gorillas spend most of the day playing with all sorts of things. They like to search for treats hidden by the keeper in the enclosure: for example, dried fruit, seeds and nuts. Gorillas are highly intelligent, so they need to be given a variety of tasks that allow them to use not only physical strength, but also the mind,” said Svetlana Akulova.

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Zoo visitors can watch the first weeks of life of the small gorilla and her family at the Monkey House pavilion. Throughout the winter, the animals will be kept in a warm indoor environment, and when spring comes and the temperature rises above plus 15 degrees, the gorillas will spend more time in the outdoor enclosure.

The Moscow Zoo regularly adds to its collection of over a thousand species and eight thousand animals. In 2017, an aardvark and six Gentoo penguins first were brought here. This year, two Amur tigers and a Far Eastern forest cat settled in the zoo. Also, it was the first time in 15 years that a Diana monkey was born at the Moscow Zoo.   

The zoo participates in international programmes for the conservation of rare and endangered species. Cubs of such animals, born in the zoo, are sent to other zoos in the country and the world, and animals also move from different cities and countries to the Moscow zoo.

In particular, in March, Miron the Amur tiger, born in Moscow four years ago, moved to Copenhagen. In October, a two-year-old male secretary bird was brought to the capital from the French ornithological park Parc des Oiseaux under the European Endangered Species Programme.