Already the Friday before last I published in a newspaper a photo of the gorilla female Mobi “looking out” for a sibling. By that I meant the baby, which Kijivu was due to give birth any day, if not any second.
According to data in literature on the duration of gravidity of lowland gorillas the earliest day of the birth could have been as early as March 14th. On the other side, the latest day, when we could expect Kijivu’s baby, was May 7th. But Kijivu already had four babies in the past, so we could base our guesses on the duration of her previous pregnancies. According to this criteria, Mobi’s sibling should have been already born last Thursday, on April 4. So, when I was publishing the picture of Mobi “looking out” for a sibling, I added that while the newspaper was being pressed, the baby might have already been born.
Well, it did not happen. And we waited in vain even on following days. The time came only the night of Thursday 11thto Friday April 12th.
Kijivu gave birth to her fifth baby at half past midnight. She behaved very expertly and pushed it to her breast, so before 1 am we could confirm that the baby was drinking. However, we know all of that thanks from the camera footage; we let everything to take its course and we went to see Kijivu with the baby on our own eyes only at 8 am, when the curtain covering the gorilla exhibit from the light of phytolamps was raised.
At that moment, Kijivu was sitting with her new-born baby just next to Duni with little Mobi. It was an amazing sight! However, Kisumu, the father of both babies immediately stood in front of them, and then they moved a bit away from each other.
If I recall the view of both mothers with babies, I can describe it in a style of Jára Cimrman in this way: there was grandmother Kijivu next to her granddaughter Duni, who was carrying her great granddaughter Mobi in her arms. But for Kijivu’s newborn baby Mobi is a sibling – they have the same father Kisumu – and a great-niece at the same time. Ugh, I hope I got it right, if not, correct me. But I had to mention it because of various pettifoggers.
However, the important thing is that the second baby born this year in our Dja Reserve is doing well, Kijivu is taking perfect care for it and that there is harmony in the gorilla group. We even evaluated the situation as being good enough that we could keep the house opened for visitors and only limited using long lenses and big cameras, which could provoke Kisumu.
We don’t know the sex of the Kijivu’s baby with one hundred percent certainty, but it seems that it might be a female. But we know exactly, who will select the name for it. It will be the famous primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall, who will officially baptise it on May 11, at 11 am in the Dja Reserve.