Burrowing deep into her mother’s chest and staring up into her eyes, Afia the baby gorilla looks right at home.
But getting to this point hasn’t been easy. The 10-month-old lowland gorilla was left fighting for her life after being born by emergency caesarean at Bristol zoo, and keepers initially had to care for her themselves.
They gave 1,570 bottle feeds, changed nearly 1,400 nappies and started slowly introducing her to her gorilla family. Gradually, Afia has developed a strong bond with her surrogate mother, Romina, and now lives with her primate family permanently.
Afia’s own mother, Kera, has been too ill after giving birth to raise her. The process of introducing Afia to her new family has been a long and delicate one for the keepers.
Lynsey Bugg, curator of mammals, said: “Since her birth in February, our team has worked tirelessly to hand-rear Afia 24/7 while being mindful to ensure human imprinting was kept to a minimum.
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“Our ultimate goal has always been to reunite Afia with her gorilla family, so we all feel immensely proud and relieved to now see her where she belongs.”