News

Belfast Zoo welcomes little miracle

BELFAST Zoo has described the birth of its first western lowland gorilla in 16 years as a "little miracle".

The as yet unnamed male was born to mother Kwanza and father Gugas earlier this month.

A competition was launched yesterday through the zoo's website to name the new arrival.

Belfast Zoo manager Mark Challis said the birth of the new gorilla was very important.

"Almost all apes are either endangered or critically endangered and some professionals have even predicted that all species of ape will be extinct within 30 years, showing the fragility of animal life in the modern world and the importance of zoos such as Belfast," he said.

"In recent decades, gorilla populations have declined by more than 50 per cent and this is predominantly due to threats caused by humans, including bushmeat trade, habitat destruction and viruses."

Silverback gorilla Gugas was born in the wild but his parents were killed when he was young, supposedly after being targeted for bushmeat.

Gugas was found abandoned at Lisbon Zoo in Portugal after a circus that had taken him for their show dumped him there due to his ill-health.

The gorilla arrived in Belfast Zoo in 1998 but it was not until over a decade later that his mating partner Kwanza arrived from France.

Julie Mansell, the zoo's curator, said that because Gugas was born in the wild he is genetically very important to the European breeding programme.

"Because Gugas is so important, last year we decided to test his fertility. The results were less than promising and it was suspected that Gugas would never father any infants," she said.

"You can therefore imagine the entire teams' delight when we discovered that Kwanza was pregnant with her little miracle."