Fort Worth gorilla doing 'really well' at new home in Cleveland

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A baby gorilla born at the Fort Worth Zoo is said to be doing well after making the move to Cleveland.

Jameela, a western lowland gorilla, was born via c-section due to life-threatening complications with her mother's pregnancy.

After she was born, Jameela was rejected by her mother, Sekani, due to the circumstances around her birth.

When efforts to find Jameela a surrogate mother in Fort Worth also failed, the baby gorilla was moved to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo three weeks ago.

The zoo says in just a few weeks in Ohio they are seeing a great deal of progress.

"She’s incredibly healthy. She’s very strong," said animal curator Dr. Elena Less.

Jameela is being kept next to the gorilla group at all times and a surrogate mother, Fredrika, picked the baby up right away.

"We did find that Kayembe was being a little bit rambunctious. He’s the older toddler brother, so that’s to be expected. So we are moving slowly and making sure that Fredrika has time to bond with Jameela and that we can work on Kayembe on reinforcing positive, calm behaviors around Jameela as well," Dr. Less said.

As part of the process, Jameela is getting all of her bottles next to Fredrika with Kayembe looking on.

"They’re still maintaining that contact with her every time we feed her. We’re working on her strength. She’s doing tummy time. She is receiving bottles through a mesh panel so that she’s ready for when she goes back into the group," said Less.

The zoo shared a video update of Jameela bonding with her new foster mom.

"We were very excited to see the update from Cleveland. It was everything we hoped for."" said Dr. John Griffioen with the Fort Worth Zoo. "It was definitely bittersweet when she left. She was a big part of the zoo here in the whole community, but we are just really excited for her. This is what we wanted all along."

The Cleveland Zoo says keepers also are practicing carrying the baby gorilla on their backs because that is how Fredrika likes to carry her babies.

The zoo says after several days they will try to introduce Jameela to the full group.