A 10-month-old gorilla is bonding with his new adoptive mom – to the wonder and relief of the zookeeper who reared him.
Kaius, a 10-month-old gorilla, has already had a difficult time at the Mogo Wildlife Park in Australia’s New South Wales. His parents failed to care for him, CNN reports, and at just a day old, he was diagnosed with sepsis pneumonia.
For fear Kaius wouldn’t make it, the zoo’s director, Chad Staples, stayed up with him all night. He held him like he would a child, letting the baby gorilla sleep on his chest.
Chad Staples, the director for Mogo Wildlife Park, reared a gorilla named Kaius after his parents failed to care for him.(Source: Chad Staples/Mogo Wildlife Park via CNN)
Staples reared Kaius for 10 months, feeding him milk, changing his diapers and letting him cling to his back as they walked around the zoo, according to CNN.
Kaius was recently moved into a pen in the gorilla enclosure neighboring G-Anne, an unrelated 42-year-old female gorilla. Zoo staff hoped he’d bond with her, and he did.
G-Anne has now taken over the role of adoptive mom.
“It makes me so happy to see the two of them together now,” Staples told CNN. “It’s been a hell of a journey.”
Staples says Kaius seems to recognize him, and he hopes the connection they built will last.
“Once I’m close, he really pushes his face into mine and big beautiful breaths, holds on tight, you know, tries to kiss, all these sorts of beautiful things,” Staples told CNN. “I do hope that there’s a bond there for his life. It’d be pretty special.”
Zoo staff hopes that Kaius and G-Anne will eventually be able to share an enclosure.