{"id":9187,"date":"2025-07-23T08:15:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/?p=9187"},"modified":"2025-07-23T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:15:22","slug":"critically-endangered-baby-gorilla-born-at-cheyenne-mountain-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/?p=9187","title":{"rendered":"Critically endangered baby gorilla born at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is celebrating the birth of a critically endangered Western lowland gorilla baby, according to a release from the zoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bundle of joy was born early Monday morning to 32-year-old mother Asha and first-time father Goma. Asha and her new baby are doing well, and the little one has hit milestones indicating it is strong, like nursing and clinging to Asha, the zoo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Asha is sitting and lying down with the baby and gently patting its back, which is really adorable,” said Ashton Asbury, an animal keeper at the zoo’s Primate World. “The baby hangs onto Asha while she’s moving around, and she supports it with one hand. They’re bonding well, and we have seen her licking the baby’s head and grooming it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The zoo said the birth marks the first gorilla born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in nearly 13 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sex and weight of the baby are not yet known. As long as the zookeepers observe that the baby and mother are still doing well, they will continue to let Asha take the lead in providing care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Asha has welcomed her third baby at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with first-time father Goma.<\/strong><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The baby is expected to cling to Asha for the first several weeks, but will begin getting to know Goma as long as mom feels comfortable, according to the zoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He seems to want to stick close to her and the baby,” Ashton said. “I heard him making happy gorilla grumbles at them, and Asha is doing a good job of showing him the baby while keeping a comfortable distance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this is 34-year-old Goma’s first baby, this is the third child Asha has welcomed during her time at the zoo. Asha’s two other children now live in troops at different zoos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A critically endangered Western lowland gorilla baby was born Monday at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.<\/strong><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asha was born at the zoo in October 1992, and Goma arrived in 2016 following a breeding recommendation from the Western Lowland Gorilla Species Survival Plan, according to the zoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with the zoo’s tradition, the baby will be named after it is at least 30 days old. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Primate World exhibit is open to the public and will remain open so long as Asha and the baby do well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoo officials stated that Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered in the wild, and their numbers continue to decline. Visitors can help with gorilla habitat preservation by recycling small electronics and cell phones at the zoo.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is celebrating the birth of a critically endangered Western lowland gorilla baby, according to a release from the zoo. The bundle of joy was born early Monday morning to 32-year-old mother Asha and first-time father Goma. Asha and her new baby are doing well, and the little one has hit milestones indicating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[1305,1308,1306,1307],"class_list":["post-9187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal","tag-babygorilla","tag-cmzoo","tag-gorillabirth","tag-zoobaby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9191,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions\/9191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}