This beautiful tiny baby gorilla was born following an extremely rare caesarean procedure at Bristol Zoo.
Baby gorilla now “full of life” despite needing resuscitation after caesarean - @BristolZooGdns vet Rowena Killick https://t.co/uQTaiHJ9Nb
According to the BBC, she weighed just 2lbs 10oz. The operation had to be carried out because her mother Kera showed signs of pre-eclampsia, which causes high blood pressure.
The zoo's curator of animals, John Partridge, told the Gloucestershire Echo: "The birth of any gorilla is a rare and exciting event; but the birth of a baby gorilla by caesarean section is even more unusual."
The baby is believed to be the first in the UK to survive after being born this way, and one of only a handful around the world.
The baby's mother was given a scan on 12 February and it was shown that the baby was unresponsive, so she was given general anaesthetic and then the procedure was carried out.
Pictures of the newborn are now trending all over Twitter.
Amazing, heart-warming story of a gorilla born by C-Section at Bristol Zoo https://t.co/DXktscZ3RH
David Cahill, an expert in reproductive medicine at Bristol University and a gynaecologist at Bristol's St Michael's Hospital, was one of the doctors who delivered the baby. He has performed such operations on humans over the years, but told the Western Daily Press that this was something he would "never forget".
He told the paper: "I have since been back to visit Kera and the baby gorilla, it was wonderful to see them both doing so well."
Western lowland gorillas are endangered, though it is difficult to say how many of them there are because they inhabit remote areas.
