Brighten Your Day

Woman Shares Maternal Bond With Gorilla Mom

May 14, 2021

My name is Michael. The woman in the video is my wife, Emmelina, and the baby is our 1 month old son, Canyon.

We live in Maine and were on a weekend getaway with my mother and sister, visiting Boston, MA. We decided to go to the Franklin Park Zoo while we were there.

While in the gorilla exhibit, we were especially enjoying watching the mother gorilla, Kiki, and her 7 month old son Pablo. My wife mentioned that she felt like she could understand their bond and could see how much she cared for Pablo since she is a mother now herself.

My wife held up our son to show to Kiki who was on the other side of the enclosure. Emmelina kept telling me that Kiki seemed to be very interested in the baby but I thought she was just imagining it. The next time she made eye contact with Kiki, she held up Canyon again and waved her over, then Kiki grabbed Pablo and put him on her leg to carry him over to us.

My wife sat on the floor and Kiki came over and immediately started interacting with us. It was one of the most amazing experiences to see her trying to hold Canyons hand, lick him through the glass, and she just kept on pointing to us and then down at him, almost as if she was telling us "that’s your baby". She was talking to us with her hands. Pablo even pushed his face up to the glass at one point and they watched him, noses touching, together.

My wife and I both had tears in our eyes and we had several people tell us they had never witnessed something or experienced something so beautiful as this in their life. Such an incredible memory to share with our son someday!