Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Zookeepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium discovered that Sully, a gorilla they believed to be male, had unexpectedly given birth.
CNN
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Zookeepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium came across a pair of unexpected discoveries Thursday morning: a newborn baby gorilla and the news that its mother was not a male gorilla.
The gorilla, Sully, had been living at the facility with his mother since 2019 and was believed to be male until “the gorilla care team discovered he was holding an unexpected baby gorilla early Thursday,” the zoo announced in a news release.
But how did the facility not know that 8-year-old Sully was actually a girl? And that she is pregnant?
Well, gorillas “don’t have prominent sex organs” and males and females are usually the same until the age of 8, the zoo said in a release, noting that it’s late in life that males develop their large size, silver backs and distinctive head bumps.
With hard-to-identify features, veterinarians at the zoo where the gorilla was born took a “hands-off approach” to their care and allowed the primate to be cared for by its mother, the Columbus Zoo said.
When Sully arrived in Columbus, he was a “young and healthy animal” and did not need any medical procedures that would have led to the discovery sooner, the zoo said.
Pregnancy is also missed because “gorillas rarely show outward signs” that they are carrying because “newborns are smaller than human babies and gorillas naturally have large bellies,” the release notes.
Since gorillas are pregnant for eight and a half months, the zoo estimated that Sully became pregnant in the fall.
The zoo says the adorable baby appears to be a healthy female. “Veterinarians and animal care teams have not yet approached the infant, giving them time to bond with each other and the rest of the troop, but will conduct a wellness exam soon,” the facility said in the release.
A DNA test will then be conducted to determine the father of the newborn.
The new mother and baby will be on display for visitors to the zoo’s gorilla habitat starting Friday, according to the release.
Western lowland gorillas – the subspecies that live at the Columbus Zoo – are critically endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There are an estimated 100,000 left in the wild across Africa, says the Columbus Zoo. Their population has been decimated by habitat loss, deforestation and hunting for bushmeat.
The surprise discovery builds a history of gorilla conservation at the Columbus Zoo. The facility “was the first zoo in the world to welcome the birth of a baby gorilla” in 1956, according to the release.
Sully’s as-yet-unnamed baby is the 34th gorilla born at the zoo, the release said. “He is an important part of our work to preserve these beautiful animals,” the facility wrote.
