Male Gorilla Shocks Staff Giving Birth in Ohio Zoo

The staff at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium were surprised to find a newborn baby in their gorilla troop, partly because they hadn’t realized the mother was pregnant, but mostly because they’d thought the mother was a male.

Sully, an 8-year-old who joined the zoo’s troop in 2019, was thought to be a dude, right up until early last Thursday morning when the gorilla-care team found her holding her baby. Mother and baby (it’s a girl!) appear to be doing well.

How could an accredited zoo – whose claim to fame is that it was the first zoo in the world where a gorilla was born, in 1956 – make such an egregious category error? The website explains:

“It’s hard to tell the sex of younger gorillas. Until about age 8, males and females are about the same size, and they don’t have prominent sex organs. As gorillas age, they become sexually dimorphic, meaning males and females look very different. However, males don’t develop their characteristic large size, silver backs, and large head bumps (called sagittal crests) until age 12 or later.”

That explanation sounds plausible, but the zoo also says they know for sure that the newborn is a girl, even though the zoo staff has not yet approached her, since they want to give Sully plenty of time to bond with her babe. How do they know? “Our team confirmed that visually and with photographs that were also sent to a primate expert at another leading zoological facility.”

Whatever, it’s a happy surprise. Welcome to Earth, little one.

Photo credit: Columbus Zoo and Aquarium