Got a banana?

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Shhhh! Nap time

It had been 23 years since a baby Gorilla was born at North Carolina Zoo when on August 4th, "Bomassa", a healthy male, was born to 12-year-old "Jamani".

 The rare births are cause for celebration not only for N.C. Zoo but also for the entire Gorilla Species Survival Plan (SSP®), the group responsible for the long-term sustainability of the western lowland gorilla population in North American zoos. With these births, the Gorilla SSP moves closer to its target population size of 360 individuals in 52 zoos.

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Ooo, that tickles!

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The cutest thing you'll see today

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You can pick your friends ...

and you can pick your nose ... Picture: Chessington World of Adventures Source

Monkey faces

Each mountain gorilla face is unique. They range from beautiful to expressive, laughable, and noble. Some of the infants have faces like old men, and the toddlers sport wild hairstyles. Here are a few pictures from The Faces of Virunga’s Mountain Gorillas. Source

Today's awwwwwwww!

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Smile!

Picture: AP

Smile!

Bad hair day

These wild haired primates prove that being a real life gorilla in the mist can wreak havoc with your hairdo. Looking in desperate need of some frizz-ease, the grizzled gorillas have the local weather to thank for their curly look. Aren't they cute? Source

Fursday Fun

Source Albert J Valentino / NBP Zoolife Winner Zainal Abd Halim / Reuters Alanah M. Torralba / EPA

S.F. Zoo seeks surrogate mom for baby gorilla

Keepers handling the newborn gorilla at the San Francisco Zoo are hoping to find a surrogate gorilla mother for a baby whose own mom is showing little interest in him. Mom, an endangered western lowland gorilla named Monifa, bedded down in the gorilla enclosure about as far away as she could from her infant. The baby gorilla, part of the critically endangered lowland western species, was the first born at the zoo in 10 years. Source: SF Gate

A mother's grief -

Eleven-year-old gorilla Gana was holding her three-month-old baby Claudio in her arms on Saturday in her compound at the zoo in Munster, northern Germany, when it suddenly died. Initially puzzled, Gana stared at the body, bewildered by its lifelessness. For hours the distraught mother gently shook and stroked the child, vainly seeking to restore movement to his lolling head and limp arms. Visitors to the zoo openly wept as they witnessed her actions. Hours passed, during which Gana continually prodded and caressed the dead child, to no effect. But still she refused to give up hope. Gently placing it on her back and slowly walking around the compound, she stopped every few paces to look back and see if her much-loved son had returned to life. 'Claudio died in his mother's arms - we think from some heart defect,' said zoo director Joerg Adler. 'On Wednesday he didn't seem well. On Friday he wasn't eating or drinking and was growing weaker. We were keeping a close eye on him but suddenly, on Saturday morning, he died.' Still think animals don't have feelings? Source: MailOnline But hold on --- This is not Gana's first experience with motherhood. Last year, she gave birth to her first baby, a female named Mary Zwo. Gana rejected Mary Zwo for six weeks. Staff at the zoo finally intervened and rescued the baby, which was taken to a veterinary hospital with dehydration and exposure. Mary Zwo was never returned to her mother and has lived at a zoo in Stuttgart with four other gorillas ever since. This time, Münster Zoo rejected the idea of stepping in to save Claudio. "There was no point in intervening again," said Mr Adler. "We cannot keep on taking away children from a mother."

Cute or not? Baby gorilla

Jenny's birthday

This is Jenny. Jenny is recognized as the world's oldest gorilla in captivity Gorillas in the wild normally would live to age 30 or 35, but health care and protection from predators has extended their lifespan in zoos. Of the roughly 360 gorillas in North American zoos, only four are over the age of 50. All of them are female. Jenny is the oldest of them all at 55. Caretakers at the Dallas Zoo, where Jenny lives, celebrated her birthday with a four-layer frozen fruit cake and banana leaf wrapped treats. Source: Live Science

Heart disease hits zoo gorillas

Gorillas in zoos around the nation, particularly males and those in their 20s and 30s, have been falling ill - and sometimes dying suddenly - of heart disease. The stunning deaths of otherwise healthy apes have zookeepers scrambling to understand what factors may be causing the illnesses and what might be done to save the 368 lowland gorillas that now reside in 52 zoos across North America. Ape experts have established the Gorilla Health Project, looking to track rates of heart disease and death among gorillas in captivity. Read the excellent article at Monkeys in the News.

Baby gorilla arrives in style

A visitor at Sydney's Taronga Zoo noticed the blood on gorilla Frala's brown coat. Within an hour, a small army of vets and keepers had descended on the gorilla enclosure to discover that Frala had given birth to a baby gorilla boy. Frala's new son, who joins his four-year-old brother Fataki at the zoo, will feed on breast milk alone for around eight months before being introduced to vegetarian solids the rest of his family enjoys. (via)

Useful Gorillas

Bits and pieces found this very useful product, Gorilla Snot, which is a gripping aid - a non-gooey, naturally refined tree rosin. It reacts with your body's natural chemistry and heat output to retain a steady grip on picks drumsticks, bows, and any other hard to grip instruments. Around our house, Gorilla Glue is the adhesive we swear by. It works great on wood and other tough to repair items. It works better than Super glue in many cases.

Emergency Gorilla-Protection Force Deployed in Congo

A temporary, 30-ranger gorilla-protection force has been deployed in the troubled African park where at least five mountain gorillas were killed, execution style, in July. The emergency measure is intended to end the attacks on endangered gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park. More than half of the world's 700 endangered mountain gorillas are found in Virunga National Park, which straddles the border of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.

Gorilla guardians

The last 100 mountain gorillas still alive in the Democratic Republic of Congo after years of fighting, live in the 8,000 sq km Virunga National Park, in eastern DR Congo. Around 1,100 wildlife rangers work in the parks of eastern DR Congo, protecting not only mountain gorillas, but also chimpanzees, forest elephants, rhinos and lowland gorillas. The rangers, who work for the Congolese wildlife authority (ICCN), risk their lives to protect the gorillas, despite small and irregular wages. (via)