LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Zoo visitors will notice a new face in its award-winning Gorilla Forest.
Infant gorilla Abeo, a 1 1/2-month-old male Western Lowland gorilla, and his foster mother, 40-year-old Kweli, are now part of the daily viewing rotation for guests. Abeo comes to the commonwealth from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where he was born June 28. His name means "bringer of happiness" in Yoruba, a language spoken in West Africa.
The Louisville Zoo said Abeo could not bond with his mother, Akenji, forcing Woodland Park Zoo officials to find suitable care for the infant. The Woodland Park Zoo collaborated with the Gorilla Species Survival Plan to find him a new home, a breeding program managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which maintains a list of potential foster gorillas across the country.
Kweli was selected based on her successful experience fostering Kindi, the Louisville Zoo's 8-year-old sub-adult female gorilla who was orphaned shortly after birth, the zoo said.
"Kweli has been an exemplary foster mom, first with Kindi and now with Abeo," said Louisville Zoo Director Dan Maloney. "We are incredibly proud of Kweli's care and her attentiveness. Like our visitors, we are looking forward to watching Abeo grow and thrive with the family troop at Gorilla Forest."
"All of us at Woodland Park Zoo are celebrating that baby Abeo is now in the arms of gorilla Kweli," said Martin Ramirez, interim senior director of Animal Care at Woodland Park Zoo. "This is how it should be for a baby gorilla — being in the direct care of a gorilla and being socialized with a family of gorillas."
The zoo's Gorilla Forest team has provided around-the-clock for Abeo, it said, including feeding and socializing with him using vocal and behavioral cues similar to those of a gorilla mother. Abeo and Kweli will gradually be integrated with the rest of the zoo's gorilla troop over the next several weeks that includes silverback Casey (42 years old), adult females Paki (35 years old) and Patty (11 years old) and sub-adult female Kindi (8 years old), in addition to bachelor gorillas Bengati, Jelani, Cecil and Kicho.
Western Lowland gorillas are critically endangered and could face extinction without stronger efforts to protect them, the Louisville Zoo said. Illegal poaching, civil unrest, disease and habitat destruction are their primary threats to survival.
Check out louisvillezoo.org/gorillafoster for updates on Abeo's progress. The Louisville Zoo is open daily year round except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day; current hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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