Musings from a Former Gorilla Keeper

Columbus Zoo, 30 September 2010

I am once again blessed to be watching a newborn gorilla infant with its mother. First-time mom Cassie gave birth the day before while her cage mates quietly watched. For thirty years, on and off, I have been fortunate to have a glimpse into the lives of these fascinating creatures and their complicated social lives. They are at once aloof, funny, touching and endearing. By all accounts Cassie appears to be a good mom, very matter of fact about this whole business of a baby clinging to her belly…..she is her mother all over again.  Sixteen years prior in these very same cages Cassie herself was born. 

As I sit over the next weeks watching Cassie and her infant - verifying nursing’s, documenting the onset of teething, how mom and infant interact with one another - I am struck by the physical similarities Cassie possesses of both her father, Oscar, and her grandfather, Bongo.  When she is hunkered down on her belly, and glances up at me she looks startling like her father Oscar - it is his rust-colored eyes that I see. And I wonder, having never met her father who died shortly before her birth how and where did she get the mannerisms that so mimic him? Cassie  has the same furrowed lines under her eyes that were such a dramatic part of her grandfather Bongo’s face as well as his distinctive jaw-line.  She looks so much like her grandfather and father it is as if they are here, still a part of both our lives.  

These gorillas from one generation to the next carry with them the stories of their forefathers - their daily lives, their individual personalities, their challenges and triumphs. I see it in Cassie’s newborn infant who has her own father’s almond shaped eyes. They carry with them all that had gone before, from Africa to a captive setting at a US zoo. They carry the stories of their ancestors.