Zoo expecting gorilla baby

It has been almost eight years since a gorilla was born at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, but if all goes well that drought ends this summer.

Asha, an 11-year-old western lowland gorilla, is pregnant.

"It is a rebirth for the Cincinnati Zoo's gorilla propagation program," said Ron Evans, curator of primates.

What's more, word could come soon that another of the zoo's gorillas, 12-year-old Anju, is pregnant. Like Asha, she was taken off birth control when breeding recommendations were made by the Gorilla Species Survival Plan, or SSP.

The SSP, which is administered by the Silver Spring, Md.-based Association of Zoos & Aquariums, manages the breeding of 340 gorillas housed in 51 North American zoos. The goal is to keep the overall population healthy by diversifying the gene pool, which sometimes means moving gorillas from zoo to zoo. Evans sits on the SSP management committee.

Historically, Cincinnati has had one of the world's most successful gorilla breeding programs, with 48 births. Evans, a 30-year zoo veteran, has been around for more than half of those. But no gorilla has been born here since a male, Bakari, in August 2006.

That was intentional. To guard against Cincinnati's gorillas being overrepresented in the captive gene pool, the zoo followed SSP recommendations to put its breeding program on hold. In the meantime, the SSP coordinated the moves of other gorillas with different bloodlines to Cincinnati.

Asha arrived in October 2011 from the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. Anju (AH-noo) came from the Pittsburgh Zoo the following year. The SSP determined that they could be bred with 22-year-old Jomo, the zoo's 400-pound silverback, who arrived from Toronto in 2005.

Neither female has given birth before. Asha is the most confident and dominant of the two, Evans said, so it was decided she should get the first crack at motherhood.

Zoo staff had supreme confidence that Jomo would do his part once Asha went off birth control. This will be his second offspring; he fathered Bakari almost eight years go.

"We call him Jomeo (rhymes with Romeo) around here, because all the girls love Jomo," Evans said. "He's stereotypical of a silverback – a tough guy, in charge. He impresses the lady gorillas."

But the zoo proceeded slowly with breeding because it devoted many resources in the past year to Gladys, the baby gorilla rejected by its mother at the same Texas zoo where Asha was born, and raised by human surrogate mothers until a female gorilla in Cincinnati could take on that role. The zoo also wanted to ensure that Asha and Anju were well established in their family groups.

Both females and their offspring will remain at the Cincinnati Zoo until well after their hoped-for successful births.

Asha's pregnancy was detected Dec. 11. Based on the dates she and Jomo bred, and the 250-day gorilla gestation period, she's expected to deliver in early- to mid-July.

Like human moms-to-be, Asha has been getting prenatal ultrasound tests. On Thursday, behind the scenes at Gorilla World, Evans accompanied primate keeper Ashley Ashcraft and veterinary technicians Jenny Kroll and Amy Long to Asha's enclosure. They sat or stood inches from the gorilla, separated by rows of steel bars.

When Ashcraft held out her cupped hand, Asha understood it as the signal to move her lower belly against the bars. The training to elicit that behavior – with fruit treats offered as rewards – began months ago.

Then Ashcraft poured water on the gorilla's lower belly, applied gel to an ultrasound wand, and touched the wand to the gorilla's body, near the pelvis.

Asha doesn't like the gel, the conductive medium that aids with image quality. At first, "Every time we brought the gel out, she would just walk away," Ashcraft said.

The crew later discovered that Asha does better if her pelvic area is first doused with water.

On a monitor, Kroll and Long studied a grainy image of the gorilla developing inside Asha. They could make out the top of its head, a foot and hand. Everything appears normal.

Boy or girl? That's still not known, Evans said, because of the way the baby is turned.

A girl would be nice, he said, because gorillas live in groups of one male and multiple females. "But No. 1, we prefer a healthy, mother-raised baby." ■

A short history of Cincinnati Zoo gorillas

1931

The zoo gets its first gorilla, Susie.

1952

King Tut arrives. The silverback eventually helps produce five offspring, including Samantha, who is 44 and still at the zoo.

1970

The zoo records its first gorilla birth when Sam is born. Samantha is born eight days later. They are named in honor of Good Samaritan Hospital in recognition of the staff there who taught the zookeepers how to care for the babies.

1978

The Gorilla World exhibit opens.

1987

King Tut dies at age 37.

1995

The zoo sets a U.S. record with six gorilla births in one year.

2005

The silverback Jomo arrives in Cincinnati.

2013

Gladys, a baby gorilla rejected by her mother at a Texas zoo, is raised for four months by human surrogate mothers until a female gorilla assumes that role.