Gorilla at Wichita zoo expecting her first baby

Barika is pregnant for the first time, enduring the sweltering Kansas summer heat.

The daddy is Matt.

Both are first-time parents in a first-time maternity experience for the Sedgwick County Zoo.

Zoo officials are cautiously expecting to hear the pitter-patter of baby gorilla feet sometime late this summer – perhaps August or as late as September. Maybe sooner.

If all goes as planned, this would be the first gorilla born at the zoo.

“We just established our family group about a year ago,” Danielle Decker, the gorillas’ zookeeper, said Tuesday. “We are pretty excited about this new adventure at Downing Gorilla Forest.”

The zoo’s $5.5 million gorilla exhibit opened in 2004 and has nine gorillas in four groups.

At first, it was an all-male bachelor pad. But it was built with the idea of one day adding females and having baby gorillas.

In late 2012, the national coordinator of the Species Survival Plan told the zoo it could begin breeding gorillas. Female gorillas arrived in 2013.

The gestation period of a gorilla is 8 1/2 to 9 months, Decker said. No idea yet whether it is a boy or girl.

“We have been able to do some ultrasound training, but we are not able to get a clear enough image,” Decker said. “It is all through training and all through the barrier, so it depends on how motivated she is for training. And getting in that right spot is kind of difficult sometimes.

“So right now, what we have seen is a heartbeat and possible head and spine on the ultrasound machine. Just knowing it is a health baby so far is what we are looking for.”

Decker said it has taken time for the gorillas to become stable and ready for reproduction. Barika, the mom, arrived at the zoo last year from Calgary, Alberta.

“We wanted to make sure the group was cohesive and they were doing well as a group before the breeding took place,” Decker said.

The Sedgwick County Zoo is one of seven accredited zoos in Kansas participating in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ species survival plan for a variety of species.

Rules for breeding gorillas

Before an animal is born, plans have to be made for it; zoos do not breed animals just to have baby animals on hand.

Zoo officials are required to keep detailed records on breeding and management plans, looking at each animal’s genetics and its suitability for reproduction.

Each week, Decker said, Barika is weighed to see how the pregnancy is progressing and that she is gaining weight properly. Right now, Barika weighs 260 pounds.

“She has definitely gained weight,” Decker said. “Right now, the pregnancy is doing great, and we are doing life as normal.”

Although Barika is a first-time mom, this won’t be the first time she has been around a baby. In Calgary, she was a surrogate mother for a gorilla who didn’t accept her baby.

“She took the job as an infant caretaker because another gorilla did not,” Decker said. “She has that maternal instinct.

“This will be the first time she’s given birth, so that will be a whole new experience for her. But we are pretty sure she has got experience by seeing other females in that group giving birth and maternal care. We are pretty sure she will do just fine.”

Endangered species

The Western lowland gorilla is found in the tropical forest of western Africa, from southern Nigeria to the Congo River.

In 2007, Western gorillas, the only species seen in zoos, were declared critically endangered by the World Conservation Union. Less than a decade ago, it was estimated there were 100,000 Western gorillas in Africa. Now, those numbers are closer to 30,000. Many of the gorillas have been killed by humans or by disease.

In the wild, gorillas live in groups of three or four females to one male.

Because the gorillas are nearly extinct in the wild, zoos stopped taking gorillas out of the wild in the 1960s. Over the next few decades, many zoos relied on larger zoos such as San Diego and Cincinnati to successfully raise gorillas, with smaller zoos housing the male populations.

Decker said there are approximately 350 gorillas in 51 U.S. zoos.

When male gorillas reach their 20s, the ideal age for fatherhood, they are moved to other zoos.

Matt is 22; Barika is 15.

One other female gorilla at the Sedgwick County Zoo could become pregnant in the future, Decker said. Kigali, who came from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., has been recommended for the breeding program but has not yet become pregnant.

“We are pretty excited to see how things go,” Decker said.

This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Gorilla at Wichita zoo expecting her first baby."