They also use a thick, luxurious faux-fur vest which closely replicates actual gorilla fur, Evans said. One of the coats is double-sided, for example, to imitate a gorilla's pelt on one side and a gorilla's hairless chest on the other. "We need to duplicate what a gorilla mother would do with a baby so when that transition happens down the road it won't be such a shock to Gladys, so everything a gorilla mom does, holds their baby 24/7, we try and imitate and that's what we have to do," Evans told CTV's Canada AM Friday.ĭuring their eight-hour shifts, handlers wear black outfits to mimic the colour and even the feel of Gladys' future surrogates. But in the meantime, the team leader at the zoo's primate centre Ron Evans says humans are standing in. Staff at the zoo's gorilla unit are preparing Gladys to be joined with one of two female gorilla surrogates at the zoo, whom they hope will adopt the little one as their one.
Gladys, a six-week-old gorilla, was transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo from a Texas facility after her mother displayed a lack of maternal care.
Hairless gorilla how to#
Wearing fake fur vests and communicating in grunts and groans, staff at a Cincinnati zoo are working around the clock to help a baby primate figure out how to be a gorilla.
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