Baby gorilla born via rare C-section at Washington State zoo

A baby gorilla born over the weekend at a Washington State zoo was delivered via a rare cesarean section, officials said.

The procedure, performed Sunday at Seattle’s Woodland Zoo, was done on a 29-year-old western lowland gorilla who was five days past her due date, the zoo said in a blog post Tuesday.

The newborn boy weighed 5.4 pounds, over a pound more than the average infant gorilla, the zoo said.

Both he and his mother, Olympia, are in good health, a zoo official said in the post, though they remain cautious because the “situation is very fluid and fragile.”

According to the zoo, under a dozen C-sections have been performed on gorillas around the world. None have been done at Woodland.

A gorilla holds onto a vine in a leafy landscape. — Olympia, a gorilla housed at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, in her habitat prior to her pregnancy.Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo

A team that typically does the procedure on humans performed a C-section on Olympia after an ultrasound showed decreased amniotic fluid and an incompletely dilated cervix, the zoo said.

After the newborn was introduced to the troop, another female gorilla who recently gave birth began caring for the baby.

Zoo officials said this wasn’t surprising and they plan on allowing the other mother, Jamanji, to care for both babies while Olympia recovers.

Source link