It’s not every day that a baby gorilla is born in captivity—and it’s even rarer for that baby gorilla to be born by cesarean section.
On Feb. 12, both medical doctors and veterinarians rushed to deliver a baby western lowland gorilla at Bristol Zoo Gardens in the U.K. The mother, Kera, was showing signs of preeclampsia, a dangerous condition that also occurs in people in which a pregnant woman develops high blood pressure, protein in her urine, and swelling. The only cure for preeclampsia is delivery of the baby.
The zoo’s team of vets evaluated Kera, then medical doctors David Cahill and Aamna Ali from a nearby hospital performed the operation, their first on a gorilla. They delivered a baby gorilla girl weighing in at 2 pounds, 10 ounces. She needed emergency resuscitation as soon as she was born. But the little gorilla pulled through, and after being kept warm, given skin-to-skin contact, and fed formula, a zoo official said the baby is growing stronger. See her for the first time in the video above.