On 3rd March Western lowland gorilla Akiba gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Mother and child are doing well.

The Limbe Wildlife Centre has the policy not to breed with gorillas and chimpanzees, as we need all the space we have for the rescue of victims of the bushmeat and pet trades. This is why all the gorilla females get daily oral contraceptives. Akiba, with her 9 years old the youngest gorilla in the group, has been on the pil for several years now. Last year though she was seriously ill and we had to separate her from the group. One of our volunteers stayed with her 24 hours a day, trying to feed her and giving her medication. We had taken her off the pil, as it was already quite difficult to get her to take the necessary medications. Fortunately, she got better and started to grow again. We put her back on contraceptives and joined her with the rest of the group.

In the group she looked better and better, and she grew. At some point she looked quite healthy, but still she grew. Therefore we decided to do a pregancy test, which came out positive. We did a second test with the same result. Then we knew we had to start preparing for the birth of a baby. And although it was not planned, it was very hard not to be happy about it.

The last month of her carriage, Akiba spent the night with just some quiet females, but in the end she gave birth during the day in the outside enclosure. The group was very interested and gorilla keeper Bama saw right away that something was going on. He opened the door and Akiba ran inside with a small bundle on her arm.

The first two days we have observed them carefully, but we did not see any suckling. This is why we decided to sedate Akiba and put the baby on the nipple. As soon as we did this the baby started drinking. Ever since the baby is drinking fine. Akiba and the baby are outside again and they are doing really well.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries, Assistant Project Manager