Results tagged “gorilla”

In the grand tradition of several previous baby animal naming polls, the National Zoo has opened up voting on a name for its new baby girl gorilla. With a promise that the name that gets the most votes will be chosen, an announcement will follow mid-month. That doesn't give us much time to make sure the right name is selected.

The National Zoo announced today that its three-week-old baby gorilla is a female. In a recent interview with DCist, the Zoo's Associate Director for Animal Care, Don Moore, explained why it can often take a long time to determine the sex of a baby gorilla, and ventured that due to the baby's lineage, it would be more important if it turned out to be a female than a male, so this is apparenly good gorilla genetic news! The baby was born on January 10 to 26-year-old mom Mandara and 16-year-old dad Baraka— read the entire interview with Moore to learn whether that 10-year age gap made for a scandalous hook-up.

Don Moore is the Associate Director for Animal Care at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. As a zoo-based wildlife biologist, Moore has helped to create conservation and animal-management plans for zoos and wild animals in nature for more than 30 years. He worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York as a curator and zoo director and has published more than four dozen papers on animal husbandry and behavior. Moore helped to launch the “Managing Animal Enrichment and Training Programs” course at George Mason University as well as the Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College in New York. He appears as a guest scientist in by Amanda Lumry and Laura Hurwitz.

The family at the National Zoo expanded today! Everyone welcome the newest addition to the Great Ape House: this guy! Or girl! Born to 26-year-old mother Mandara and 16-year-old father Baraka, this infant's sex has yet to be determined. It may be a little while before this bunch of wrinkles gets a name.