Zookeepers are dressing up as gorillas. gorillas to look after a baby ape who was rejected by its mother after being born prematurely.
Staff at Fort Worth Zoo in Texas have been wearing a gorilla suit with fur-like strands imitating the mother’s fur since the mother, Sekani, abandoned baby Jameela.
Doctors performed a rare emergency c-section on Sekani after she went into labor five weeks early.
Jameela was the first gorilla born through caesarean section at Fort Worth.
It was only the third birth in the zoo’s 115-year history.
However, Sekani struggled to bond with her newborn daughter after the birth on January 5.
Zookeepers have had to provide Jameela with round-the-clock care, including by wearing a suit designed to teach her how to grip onto a future surrogate mother.
This also reduces human contact, which they hope will help Jameela bond with her replacement mother.
The zoo is currently training another female gorilla, named Gracie, to take on the role.
A spokesperson for the zoo said: ‘The gorilla-like jacket is used in part to limit human-animal contact, but mainly so that Jameela can get used to holding on to “fur” while moving around.
‘Baby gorillas rely on their mothers for movement during the first year or two of their lives.
‘We’re working with Jameela to develop her muscles and tone by allowing her to hold onto this gorilla-like jacket, rather than holding her as we would a human infant.’
Jameela was named partly after Dr Jamie Walker Erwin, who led the surgery that brought the baby gorilla into the world.
Neonatologist Dr Robert Ursprung and Dr Dennis Occkiogrosso were also part of the surgical team.
All three are more used to human patients than animal ones.
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