A baby lowland gorilla was born to a female Duna at the Prague Zoo on January 2 shortly after nine o’clock in the evening. It is the first ever baby gorilla born in the new pavilion of the Dja Reserve. If all goes well, the Prague Zoo will have one more cub in three months. The Kijivu female is also pregnant. Photo by Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo
More than a week after birth, the cub is thriving, Duni is proving to be a great mother, and the gorilla group is calm. Therefore, it is now possible to waive the measures where visitors could not watch the gorillas directly at the glass of the exhibition, and the use of cameras and cameras with large lenses was prohibited.
“The reason for these measures was the fact that Kisumu’s leading male sometimes reacts very negatively to cameras and cameras, and we didn’t want there to be unrest in the group,” said Prague Zoo director Miroslav Bobek. “Now we see no reason for these restrictions, but I appeal to visitors to respect the instructions of our staff.”
Duni allows the other females to observe the young only from a distance. The breeders explain this by saying that the bond between Duni and the other females is not as strong as, for example, in the case of the half-sisters Shinda and Kijivu, who have known each other practically all their lives – in the past, they used to borrow little Ajabu from each other already a week after his birth. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Even on these frosty days, it’s a good time to come and see Duna’s cub. The generous visitor area of the Dja Reservation offers enough space, warmth, and comfort for a long and pleasant stay. In addition, there is a new entrance directly at the Dja Reservation, where buses of line 234 from the Nádraží Holešovice stop, as well as lines 235 and 236 in the direction from Bohnice, stop.