Duni with the cub. Photo by Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo
On Tuesday, January 2, eight minutes after nine o’clock in the evening, the 10-year-old female lowland gorilla Duni gave birth to her first cub. The legendary Moja – the first gorilla born in the Czech Republic – thus became a grandmother and the popular Richard a great-grandfather. The baby is fine and started sucking breast milk during the night. His gender is understandably not yet known.
“We are happy about the first baby gorilla born in the Dja Reserve pavilion,” said the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek, “and our joy is all the greater because it continues the story of the famous Moja.” The birth of the cub paid off the difficult decision to split the existing group of gorillas and bring in a new male. Thanks only to this, we got Moja’s daughter Duni to Prague and we can breed gorillas.”
A 26-year-old Kisumu man became a father for the first time yesterday. His next cub, expected by Duna’s grandmother, 30-year-old Kijivu, should be born in about a quarter of a year.
“The birth was quick and although the female Duni is a first-timer, she managed everything without the slightest difficulty. We observed the first contractions at approximately a quarter to nine in the evening, while the cub was born less than an hour later,” describes the course of the birth, curator of mammals at the Prague Zoo, Pavel Brandl. “The other members of the group did not pay much attention to Duni during and after the birth, the only one who curiously observed the arrival of the new cub was the seven-year-old male Ajabu – until now the last gorilla cub born in the Prague Zoo.”
Today – Wednesday, January 3 – the Dja Reserve will remain closed to the public. It should be open again from Thursday, with the fact that the use of cameras will be strictly prohibited before the exposure of the gorillas. Their lenses can provoke Kisuma to aggressive behavior and unrest in the group could mean a risk for the newborn cub.
“I believe that the baby gorilla will bring tens of thousands more visitors to the recently built pavilion of the Reserve Dja and that its popularity will contribute to the protection of gorillas in Africa,” said Deputy Mayor for the Environment Jana Komrsková, recalling that the City Council decided last year to increase the protection contribution biodiversity from 5 to 8 CZK from each entrance to the Prague Zoo. “The well-known Wandering Bus project, which leads Cameroonian children to protect nature, or some of the activities of the guards of the Dja Biosphere Reserve are financed from these funds. After all, the children there know our Prague gorillas well, because the book of fairy tales in which they appear was published not only in French, but also in the Badjoué dialect.”