Fort Worth Zoo's baby gorilla born via emergency c-section getting transferred to Cleveland
FORT WORTH – The baby gorilla that was delivered via an emergency cesarian section at the Fort Worth Zoo in January is being transferred to another zoo after a failed attempt to find a motherly bond.
Jameela is set to be transferred to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, the Fort Worth Zoo announced Friday morning.
When Jameela's mother Sekani was pregnant with her, she developed preeclampsia, a blood-pressure condition that can occur during pregnancy in both humans and primates. This resulted in Jameela being delivered via emergency c-section by a North Texas OB-GYN.
While Sekani was recovering from the procedure, Fort Worth Zoo staff raised her. After two weeks and several reunification attempts that failed between mother and baby, the zoo trained another gorilla to become a surrogate mother to Jameela.
Despite repeated attempts to reunite mother and baby, Sekani showed little interest in caring for Jameela, something zoo keepers believed was a result of her never experiencing the flood of hormones associated with a full-term pregnancy and natural birth.
"While we hoped for a different outcome - one that includes Jameela fully integrated into our troop - our main goal has always been that Jameela is raised by gorillas," the zoo said.
The zoo said they spent several weeks searching for an institution that could meet Jameela's needs and offer a female gorilla with proven surrogate experience.
The zoo is offering the public a chance to see Jameela before she leaves, which will likely be next week. She will be in the indoor gorilla habitat on March 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
"She will always be a part of the Fort Worth Zoo and, once she is grown and her father is not the silverback, we hope to see her back in Fort Worth one day," the zoo said.
