After months of hand-rearing, Baby Gandai is bonding with surrogate gorilla mother at Jacksonville Zoo

Jacksonville, FL — While the reunion between a hearing-impaired gorilla and her baby at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens initially showed promise, a surrogate mother has now been brought in to try to give the baby the best possible future.

The Zoo is confident that gorilla, Bulera, will be a good long-term protector for Gandai.

“Bulera has turned out to be a really fabulous surrogate. She has been doing everything the best that we could possibly ask her to do. She is holding her, carrying her, she’s bringing her in to her nest to sleep overnight,” says Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens Supervisor of Mammals Tracy Fenn.

GALLERY: Baby gorilla Gandai

Baby Gandai was born about five months ago to her mother, Kumbuka. The Western lowland gorilla had lost two infants before arriving in Jacksonville, and the Zoo believes her hearing problems were largely to blame.

“I believe that the outcome may have been different, had Kumbuka been able to hear her infant crying, and get those cues to change her own behavior,” Fenn says.

The Zoo worked extensively with Kumbuka ahead of Gandai’s birth to train her for motherhood, but she started carrying the baby in unsafe ways almost immediately, so the Zoo intervened and has been hand-rearing Gandai since soon after birth.

While keepers were providing round-the-clock care for Gandai, they kept her in close contact with Kumbuka and the rest of the troop. They also worked non-stop to simulate the care Gandai would get, if she had been with her mother.

“We have kept her on a human 24-hours a day for the entire duration of that assisted rearing phase. The goal of that is to treat the infant as much as a mother gorilla would. So, mother gorillas don’t set their infants down and leave them, so the gorilla infant has been on a person for the whole five month period,” Fenn says.

That included helping Gandai build strength by the keepers moving on hands and knees while wearing a special vest, which the infant could cling to.

On Tuesday, Gandai and Kumbuka were brought together without any barriers for the first time since the baby was taken for hand-rearing. Initially, Kumbuka showed some interest and even held Gandai, but by the end of the day, her interest waned and she was actively avoiding the baby and pushing her away. When given the opportunity to leave Gandai’s room Wednesday morning, Kumbuka did so willingly, leaving the baby behind.

“Because Gandai was doing everything correctly, we didn’t want her to experience that rejection for too long, and then have that negatively influence the next step, should we have to go to that. And additionally, we were somewhat concerned that Kumbuka’s frustration with the situation may escalate to physical harm of Gandai, so we made the difficult decision to move to our ‘Plan B’, which was surrogacy with Bulera,” Fenn says.

The Zoo had been preparing for the possibility that the reunion wouldn’t work out as hoped, so they immediately brought in Bulera, who has successfully mothered two children and who has consistently showed interest in Gandai through the hand-rearing process. The Zoo says Bulera was instantly attentive to Gandai when they were put together, and has shown even more interest than Kumbuka did. Not only that, but the Zoo says Gandai is “smitten” with Bulera.

The pair remains under the close supervision of keepers, and Fenn says they’ll allow the pair to tell them when they’re ready to move forward.

“Once Bulera and the infant have had sufficient time to form a really strong bond and develop a relationship where Bulera is very protective of Gandai, then we’ll move forward to adding other individuals in to their group very slowly and very cautiously, moving forward,” Fenn says.

If Kumbuka had looked like she struggled with separation from Gandai, reunion with the broader troop could have been in question, however the Zoo says they’re hopeful the larger group can ultimately come together. Kumbuka has shown she likes to interact with young gorillas that are a little older.

“We hope in the future that she will also do that with Gandai and they will have a relationship, even though at this point, she is choosing not to mother,” Fenn says.

Kumbuka is content and spending time with silverback gorilla Lash. The Zoo says she does not appear to be concerned about the situation.

Overall, while the Zoo says they are disappointed that “Plan A” did not work out, they are cautiously optimistic that “Plan B” will be successful.

“In the big picture, we are really pleased with the outcome of the infant. She is going to be properly socialized in a gorilla group, she will grow up as normal as any gorilla could, and Kumbuka will continue to get the social opportunities with all of the different group members, including her daughter,” Fenn says.

If things do turn, there is a “Plan C” mapped out as well involving sending Gandai to another Association of Zoos & Aquariums accredited zoo for surrogacy, where she can join a natural social group. Fenn says, at this point, it does not look like that will be necessary.