GERMANY: Baby gorilla and baby zebra hold their first photo ops at Leipzig Zoo

A baby gorilla and a baby zebra born at the eastern German Leipzig zoo have posed for cameras for the first time. The two babies were born on July 17 and July 29 respectively. Keepers of the two week-old gorilla have so far not been able to get close to the baby to determine its sex, according to curator Dr. Andreas Bernhard who said the birth came as a surprise. "The baby's mother tricked us a little this time," Bernhard told Reuters Television. "Normally we know when to expect offspring and we also carry out pregnancy tests. But with her they were always negative so we obviously always caught her at the wrong time." "On July 17 she surprised us with a baby," Bernhard said of gorilla mother "B.B." According to Bernhard, pregnant gorillas don't act much differently from the other gorillas except that their appetite increases and the breasts might get a little bigger just before or even right after the mother gives birth. On July 29, a male 'Grevy' zebra was born, "in my opinion the most beautiful zebra type," according to its keeper Michael Ernst. "They have the most beautiful pattern, very precise and all the way down to the hoofs," Ernst said. "The mother-child relationship is usually pretty good, just like with all the other African hoofed animals," said Ernst when asked about a day in the life of a baby zebra at Leipzig zoo, going on to explain how protective the parent can be. "The parents defend their children, also against us. One animal once born here in the outdoor enclosure we had to be careful with when we tried to bring all of them inside. They defend their offspring, rightly so, because child-snatching is quite popular among these animals, especially with females which don't have children themselves yet and try to snatch other babies. Sometimes they succeed". Both the baby gorilla and zebra have yet to be named. ENDS.

ITN Source | August 5, 2006

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