大象传媒

A gorilla who was thought to be male gave zoo staff in the US quite the surprise when she gave birth to a baby.

For the past five years, keepers at Columbus Zoo in Ohio, believed a western lowland gorilla called Sulaiman, Sully for short, was a healthy male. However, last week staff were surprised when Sully was found holding her baby.

Audra Meinelt is curator of the Congo Expedition at Columbus Zoo. She told Newsday: 鈥淚t is actually very difficult to tell when they are young鈥�because they do not have prominent sex organs,鈥� adding, 鈥済orillas actually have pretty large abdominal areas because of the way their gut system works鈥�which would hide any kind of baby bump that you would expect to see as you would in humans.鈥�

Mother and baby, also a female, are 鈥渂oth doing fantastic鈥�we have decided just to permanently change the name鈥�not a full name change but a shortening back to what we had always referred to her as.鈥�

(Picture: Shows Sully with her baby. Credit: Grahm S. Jones, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.)

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