Infant Socialization 1 - Asha

When infant gorillas were first brought into captivity there was, of course, the hope they would thrive, mature and produce more gorillas.  Initially this did not happen, perhaps because male and female youngsters were raised together, perhaps because the infants did not have the opportunity to observe female-male relationships among adult gorillas, or maternal behaviors.

More and more captive gorilla moms successfully raise their infants, and this is certainly the best case scenario.  However, there are sometimes reasons an infant must be raised by humans - health problems, maternal inexperience or lack of interest.  This should always be a last resort, and much effort has been put into supporting and encouraging gorilla moms to raise their own infants.

I had the opportunity to socialize with two gorilla infants - Asha and Zuri - at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.  It was a privilege and an amazing learning experience for me.

Their mother Juju (photo) was born at the Dallas Zoo on October 26, 1980.  Her mother was Shamba and her father was Fubo.  She was raised by humans and was transferred to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs on September 9, 1982.  She is a sensitive female who sometimes sucks her fingers.  She likes to drape objects on her body and has a thing for rubber boots.  Sweet, caring Roxie is her friend.   (photos below)

In later years I would watch Juju spend entire days exhibiting proceptive behavior, circling around and coyly approaching silverbacks when she was ovulating, without ever getting to the mating part.  That was not the case with Barney (photo below), a lovely silverback who had previously fathered offspring at Toronto Zoo and Bronx Zoo.  Juju gave birth to four infants at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with Barney.  Her second baby had congenital problems and died shortly after birth.  The third, Jasiri, died when he was eight months old.  Zuri was her last offspring, and we'll talk about Zuri later.

Asha was Juju's first offspring, a beautiful daughter (photo at right).  Juju was a good mother in many ways, and appeared to dote on Asha (photos below).  However, she would not allow Asha to nurse.  If Asha found a nipple and tried to nurse, Juju would gently push her away.

After two days, Juju was anesthetized so Asha could be removed for hand rearing.  I was there that day and watched as Asha was placed on Juju's breast so she could nurse, in the hope she might still benefit from the critical antibodies found in her mother's milk.

photos by Nancy Adams

click on each photo below for larger image and caption

Asha, whose name means "she is life," was born on October 5, 1992, and she was separated from Juju on October 7.  As she developed and became more mobile, she was on display next to the other gorillas in an adjoining  enclosure (photo at right).  Keepers spent as much time with her as they could, feeding and playing with her (photos below).  But a gorilla infant is in constant body contact with its mother.  Asha began to self-stimulate and self-sooth by grinding her teeth and rocking back and forth.

It became clear someone needed to be with Asha all the time, and volunteers were recruited.  I was fortunate to be included.  Many thanks to keepers Jerri Curran and Paul Aczel for taking care of Asha and mentoring me.  My first day with Asha was June 30, 1993.  She was 9 months old.  I socialized with Asha on 18 days, spread out until August 28.

The first couple days Asha was wary of me.  If I looked at her and moved toward her, she moved away.  So I gave her space and didn't push things.  It's helpful to mimic gorilla behavior to "fit in."  I ate some greens and she came over and put her face in mine, then took some greens from me and ate them.  It was during these first days I was able to bring a camera into the enclosure and take pictures of Asha (photos at right and below).  

When she was sleepy, she let me  pick her up and put her in my lap.  When she went to sleep alone (photo below),  I sat next to her and she eventually crawled in my lap (photo below).  It was just too sad to watch her sleep all by herself.  However, she would bolt when she awoke and realized she was laying on me.  She did jump on me for comfort when there was a loud noise that scared her.  But I had multiple bruises from when she bit me if I didn't let her down soon enough.  She was tiny, but mighty!

Asha had a stuffed gorilla, a blanket and towels for security objects (photos below), and she kept one of them with her most of the time.  On the third day I channeled what the Denver Zoo gorillas had taught me about enrichment and began bringing cardboard boxes, cardboard tubes (photo at right by Nancy Adams), and paper sacks.  Asha enjoyed the noises the sacks made when she pounced on them and eventually began to interact with them.  The cardboard boxes stimulated her to climb up on them, maintain her balance and slide down, as well as making noise by slapping them.  I also brought some colorful magazines, which she enjoyed.

(photos below)

When I approached Asha on the third day and held out my hands, she grasped my fingers and let me pick her up.  We were making progress!  She got up on my back and I crawled around on hands and knees, doing my best gorilla mom imitation.  But I would need knee pads in the straw and eventually wrapped towels around my knees, securing them with rubber bands.  

A zoo employee helped Asha socialize with the adult gorillas through a partition.  Juju was very interested, sticking her head and then her arm through the infant door. 

By the fourth day, Asha remained in my lap after she awoke from her nap and continued to play around me and maintain contact with me.  On the fifth day Asha was playing with her boxes and laughing a lot (photo at right).  She was very independent and didn't want me to join her, but frequently looked at me, as if she enjoyed my company or needed reassurance.  Whenever there was another person in the exhibit with us, Asha played around us and seemed to enjoy the "social group" effect, when the attention wasn't focused just on her.

There was always feeding to be done - a bottle of milk, Gerbers baby food, primate biscuits soaked in applesauce, greens, and eventually small pieces of fruit or vegetable (photos below).  Asha wasn't always anxious to eat, but it would stimulate her interest if I ate some of the food.  Again it occurred to me how important is the social component.

A natural way to carry Asha was draped over my forearm, with her butt in my hand.  At the time, I didn't know that was similar to one way gorilla moms carry their infants.

photo at right:  Asha with her daughter Tumani, Cheyenne Mtn Zoo, 2007

When zoo folks wanted Asha to make her own way to them, the separation was very traumatic for her and she made the most pitiful little distress cries and whimperings.  When a person left her, she usually cried or screamed, then rocked for a while.  It occurred to me that Asha's day was filled with people coming and going, something her mother would never do.

When I arrived on the seventh day, Asha came out through the infant door to greet me.  I noticed that day she was no longer grinding her teeth, and she only rocked back and forth when she was left by herself.  She had begun beating her little chest and softly hooting - very cute!  Had she seen one of the adults chest beat?  We gorilla folks now think this is an innate behavior.  I held her up to the dividing mesh to see the other gorillas.  Both Juju and Barney came to the mesh and pleasure rumbled at Asha.  Every day I made sure Asha had the opportunity to watch the adults, and once she saw Barney and Roxie mating (sex education!).

One day Barney was given access to a den that was separated from Asha's area by mesh.  He spent most of the day watching Asha and me, making wonderful purrs, trills, and other musical vocalizations.  When he first arrived, Asha went over to see him and they were nose to nose at the mesh.  She lost interest, but he didn't.

I helped Asha get acquainted with the ropes in the exhibit by draping her large towels over the ropes to encourage her to climb on them.  She was soon able to climb the ropes and very carefully navigate the platforms (photos below by Nancy Adams). 

Asha was still not completely comfortable with me initiating contact with her.  Remembering how I had seen gorillas use objects to bridge the gap between themselves and another gorilla, I began tickling her with pieces of straw.  She enjoyed that, laughing softly, and then let me tickle her with my fingers (photo at right by Nancy Adams).

By the ninth day, Asha rushed to greet me and was very clingy.  She mostly played independently, but always kept an eye on me, coming to visit from time to time.  She panicked whenever I started to leave, and I would sit back down with her to calm her.  This might happen several times, but she would eventually move away and calmly allow me to leave.  It just took her a while to accept the inevitable.

By the fifteenth day, Asha seemed completely comfortable with me, climbing on me and initiating play sessions (photos below by Nancy Adams).  I assume this would have happened sooner if I was with her every day.  She had not learned the nuances of play  biting, and I had lots of bruises.  I should have play bit her to teach her.

On the twelfth day, Asha and I had company - Jody Hodges, gorilla keeper from the Denver Zoo.  Although Asha was wary of new people, she put her little face in Jody's face, smelled her and touched her blond hair.  

Asha also did a gorilla display - stiff leg strut with some "piloerection" (hair standing on end - makes the animal look bigger and more formidable), tucked lips, and sideways glances (examples below).  Such a little gorilla!  She could barely put it all together.  Asha had displayed at me like that earlier when I was waiting to be let into her exhibit.  Is this entire repertoire innate?  I don't think she could have seen one of the adults do this.  

Little milestones and events:  

9 months old - Asha had learned to drink from the Lixit waterer.

10 months 1 week old - Asha had begun draping cloth over her back and head. 

10-1/2 months old - There was a ladybug in the exhibit.  I put it on my finger to show it to Asha, but she was afraid of it and backed away.

It was a good experience for me to be on exhibit (photo at right by Jerry Billette) and experience what the gorillas and other animals live with at a zoo.  Members of the visiting public tapped on the glass, requesting me to behave in certain ways - pose Asha for pictures, bring her close to the glass.  Like most captive gorillas, I quickly learned to ignore these intrusions. 

On the thirteenth day I spread out some cloth and we lay down together, my body curled around Asha and my arm across her (photo below).  Even if she was sound asleep, if I moved at all she would startle and frantically grab hold of me (photos below).  When she awoke at the end of her nap, she lounged there, gazing peacefully into my face.  On my last day with Asha (August 28, 1993), she came to me, crawled into my lap, and went to sleep.

Asha slept soundly in my lap, her small, compact body nestled against mine.  Her head rested on my chest, and the wonderful scent of gorilla mingled with the fragrance of hay.  My arms encircled her warm, dark body.  Her hair felt coarse, yet soft.  I was sitting in the hay with my back against the cool metal door of the gorilla exhibit.  I breathed deeply, looking down at Asha , and realized there was absolutely no place else on earth I would want to be at that moment.    

Kwisha arrived from Cincinnati Zoo on August 29, 1993, along with her purple Barney dinosaur (photo below).  She was introduced to Asha the next day.  Kwisha had spent some time with her mother, but eventually had to be human reared in the zoo nursery.  To facilitate Asha and Kwisha's bonding, human interaction was limited to keeper feedings.

At first I thought Kwisha had a bewildered or freaked out look on her face (photo at right by Nancy Adams) - sort of "where in the world am I?"  But by the end of the day, it just seemed to be the wide-eyed look of a baby who hasn't got things together yet, and is in wonder about everything.  She was quite the redhead, and still is.

Kwisha was two months younger than Asha, and Asha was much more mobile, exploratory and strong (photo below).  Plus, Kwisha was coming into Asha's territory.  Asha was very dominant over her, even removing food from Kwisha's mouth (photo below).  But Kwisha took it in stride, and she and Asha would become good friends.