Gorilla born at the London Zoo
Mjukuu with her new baby boy. Photo courtesy of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) .
On October 26th, the London Zoo received a new arrival: a baby western lowland gorilla. The as yet unnamed boy was born to first-time mother Mjukuu. Zoological director, David Field, said the pair were doing ‘brilliantly’.
Classified by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, western lowland gorillas, a subspecies of lowland gorillas, are just barely hanging on in west Africa. Hunting and the Ebola virus are the main threats. Large-scale logging has brought commercial hunters ever deeper into gorilla territory. Given the species low reproductive rate, even minimal hunting can devastate a population.
