Aunt goes a little ape, kidnaps baby gorilla

There’s a real-life gorilla soap opera going on at the Sedgwick County Zoo.

At the center of attention is Alika, the first gorilla born at the zoo on Aug. 3.

The conflict involves an infant, an intimidated first-time mother and an overly possessive “aunt.”

There’s 38-year-old Kivu, the older gorilla who has become too possessive of little Alika. And there’s the first-time mother, 16-year-old Barika.

The soap opera began a couple of weeks ago.

Zoo staff members saw that the baby was being held by Kivu, not her mother.

As the older gorilla, Kivu will have an important role in helping to care for Alika as she gets older, said Danielle Decker, senior keeper at the Downing Gorilla Forest area. But the natural order of a gorilla “troop” is for the baby, now 2 months old, to be with her mother for the first six to eight months, Decker said Wednesday. The baby needs to regularly nurse with her mother.

Kivu is not related by blood to the baby gorilla.

When the staff noticed the aunt holding little Alika, they also saw that the mother was staying close.

And the good thing, Decker said, is “Everybody was being very calm.”

Kivu, the aunt, was gently holding the baby on her belly and in her arm, touching the baby’s hands, eyes and head, “just being maternal and curious,” Decker said.

It has been years since Kivu has had her own baby.

But Kivu wasn’t giving the baby back to her mother, and staff members knew the infant would eventually have to nurse.

Meanwhile, Barika was showing that she wanted her baby.

“She was concerned a few times, once the baby started crying and whimpering,” Decker said. Barika would walk to where Kivu was holding the baby and get close.

But Kivu seemed to “hold on a little tighter than we had hoped for,” Decker said.

It wasn’t out of control, but there was some tension.

Although Barika has been a great mom, she didn’t seem completely confident in retrieving her baby from the older female, Decker said. And it makes sense that Barika might be intimidated, because the aunt is more experienced and more dominant in the gorilla hierarchy.

The staff decided that after Kivu had the baby to herself for five to six hours, it was time to get the baby back to her mother. First, they would have to find a way to immobilize Kivu.

So they injected Kivu with a sedative. When she began to sleep, they picked up the baby and did a quick check-up. Alika weighed 7.5 pounds. She seemed to be in fine health.

They laid the baby gorilla in a hay nest and gave her mother access to her. Barika gathered up her daughter and began to nurse her. The staff let the two continue to bond overnight.

Since then, the keepers have separated Kivu from the group and are trying to re-integrate her – at times redirecting her, at times distracting her and at times encouraging her not to take the baby from her mother, Decker said.

The keepers, Decker noted, do a lot of training with the animals. They provide positive reinforcement for Kivu when she acts well by sitting near the baby and being calm and protective.

“But we also have to let them figure it out on their own,” Decker said.

The zookeeper sounded optimistic.

“Kivu is going to be a great aunt,” Decker said. “She’s been very interested in the baby since she was born.

“And this is Barika’s first baby, so she’s learning a lot herself.

“It can be common that aunties want to take the babies here and there,” Decker said.

“But both have learned from it.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 8:42 PM with the headline "Aunt goes a little ape, kidnaps baby gorilla."