On the front page of the Chronicle today was the goofy, smiling face of a nameless newborn baby gorilla. His mother wasn't in the photograph. That's because she's rejected her youngster, refusing to nurse him or care for him in any way.
The San Francisco Zoo is home to this sad little story, and they tried an experimental technique in efforts to salvage this mother-son relationship. They anesthetized Monifa, the mother gorilla, then laid the baby on her chest in hopes that when she awoke she would accept her infant. This press release from the Zoo just landed in the Eye on Blogs inbox with news that the procedure is complete, and the outcome is disappointing:
The San Francisco Zoo is venturing down a new road after mother gorilla, Monifa,
showed no interest in raising her newborn baby. The Zoo’s staff and veterinary
teams have dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy over the last two
days with hopes of reuniting mom and infant, but it is clear, based on Monifa’s
actions, that she is ready to move on without her infant.
On Tuesday, the Zoo’s veterinary
staff made a decision to anesthetize Monifa and while under anesthesia the teams
checked for milk production, placed the baby on her chest and then woke her up
slowly, in hopes that she would embrace her infant and begin to care for him independently.
After hours with no success, the Zoo’s veterinary and primate team decided to
pull the infant and return him to the
hospital.
“We had a 50/50 chance that this
would work – it’s been a proven technique and our hopes were high,” said
Jacqueline Jencek, DVM, chief of veterinary services at the San Francisco Zoo.
“Monifa had great milk production and the infant latched right on, as he should,
but as mom awoke, she again, just inspected the baby briefly on her way past him
then moved as far away as possible and built a new nest.”
Curators and vets realize that this is not the
best case scenario, but are moving forward with a positive outlook and will
progress towards stabilizing the infant both medically and behaviorally and will
simultaneously begin work to train a proven mom, Bawang, as a
surrogate.
“We strive for the best case
scenario in any birth, but especially with first-time moms,” said
Corinne MacDonald, curator of
primates at the Zoo. “However, we know our troop’s behavior and we could
reintroduce the infant over and over again, but based on Monifa’s personality
and how she interacts with the troop, this was not the right path for us to
take.”
This morning, the
infant gorilla was returned to the backstage area of the Jones Family Gorilla
Preserve, where he will live indefinitely with the troop. A nursery has been set
up and he and the gorilla troop will have ongoing visual contact of one another
through the mesh barriers. Two of the Zoo’s veterinary technicians, with
hand-rearing expertise, will care for the baby’s health 24-7. Two additional
behavioral/birthing experts are also coming to assist from the Associations of
Zoos and Aquariums’ Taxon Advisory Group, which has a subgroup with specific
expertise surrounding gorilla birthing plans. Both are from the Columbus Zoo.
Along with the Zoo’s expert staff, they will focus on and assist with handling
the behavioral surrogate training with Bawang, as well as the
infant.
“Hand-rearing a
gorilla infant is incredibly similar to raising a newborn human child, but we
have to be careful,” said Gail
Hedberg, a world renowned expert in exotic animal hand-rearing
and a veterinary technician at the San Francisco Zoo. “It’s a vital time for the
infant and he will receive all his nourishment needs from us, by hand, but we
also must stay quiet – let him hear, smell and see the troop, as we want to
minimize any potential human imprint.”
There are a
variety of risks involved with every path the Zoo takes in regards to the newest
member of the family. Right now, the focus is on the health and well-being of
mom, the infant and maintaining the dynamics of the troop.
Comment of the Day: "This is yet another example of the decline in gorilla morals and
acceptance of responsibility we have seen all across our country ever
since mandatory prayer was removed from gorilla public schools."
