Riverbanks Zoo Expecting Baby Gorilla

The Riverbanks Zoo family is getting bigger! One of the Western Lowland Gorillas is expecting and the Zoo family couldn’t be happier.

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Columbia, SC (WOLO)– Kazi is getting a little spoiled and rightfully so. Kazi is 12-years-old and expecting her first baby. The Zookeepers have to make sure she is getting all the right prenatal vitamins and nutrition, now that she’s eating for two.

“She is starting to get a baby bump. And as time goes on, as we learned from Macy, she’ll get pretty big,” John Davis said, Curator of Mammals for Riverbanks Zoo.  Specialists believe Kazi is about four or five months along. This will be the first infant gorilla raised at Riverbanks if the labor and delivery are successful. Last May, Riverbanks lost their first infant gorilla after the offspring was born in the breech position.  They say they learned a lot about the gorilla troop through that experience.

“They were very, very supportive of Macy throughout the entire process of pregnancy, when she was delivering, and after birth. This is a family troop,  very, very cohesive, and we learned that through Macy’s situation. So now, we’re very confident. This gorilla troop is ready for a new addition, and of course, I know Columbia is too,” Davis said. 

According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, there is an 80 percent survival rate of infants born to first-time gorilla mothers. Kazi has a team of five specialists helping her through the pregnancy and gets ultrasounds every week. So far Zookeepers have said her pregnancy is progressing normally and they are are cautiously optimistic.

“The gorillas are trained to actually participate in the care and monitoring of this birth. We have ultrasound equipment and the keepers work very, very hard to train Kazi, the female, to come up close and actually participate in the whole monitoring of the pregnancy,” Davis said. 

As you can expect, everyone is very excited for the arrival of the baby gorilla. He or she will hopefully come around early May or June.

Pregnant moms know, cravings can get pretty strong during pregnancy and zoo keepers tell me Kazi’s cravings involve sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Josh and Rochelle, back to you.