![\"Picture:](\"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_3325cropped-1-pic-Lisa-Radley-300x279.jpg\")
A new gorilla named Mjukuu was born at Taronga Zoo on Tuesday October 28.\r\n\r\nThe baby boy was born to female Mbeli and male Kibali, and things are going well according to gorilla keeper Vera Nedved.\r\n\r\n\u201cKibali is starting to take his role of silverback more seriously,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe briefly checked his son after the birth and now he is protecting and guarding Mbeli; our vet can vouch for it, having witnessed Kibali’s growing protective silverback skills.\u201d\r\n\r\nNedved said Mbeli is under supervision, and a human obstetrician was on standby in case of emergency or birth complications.\r\n\r\nThe birth went smoothly, the baby is suckling well, and the new arrival represents the \u201cculmination of the hard work of many people.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was a very emotional moment for everyone,\u201d Nedved said.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is symbolic as well, as our first baby in the group born to the first offspring from the original group [of gorillas].\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is the second generation in the making.\u201d\r\n\r\nMjukuu means \u201cgrandchild\u201d or \u201csecond generation\u201d in Swahili.\r\n\r\nMbeli was born at Taronga in February 2003, and was the first baby gorilla born to the original group led by male Kibabu.\r\n\r\n\u201cHer mother Mouila was Kibabu’s favourite female and history is repeating itself in her daughter Mbeli,\u201d Nedved said.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe is Kibali’s favourite female as well.\u201d\r\n\r\nKibali was selected by curators on recommendation from a species coordinator, and \u201cafter mountains of paperwork\u201d he was brought to Taronga from France.\r\n\r\nTwo females from Melbourne Zoo came to Taronga to meet Kibali, the first of which was Mbeli, who originally came from Taronga but had been moved to Melbourne Zoo.\r\n\r\n\u201cIntroductions went well, after which Kibali and Mbeli mated a few times,\u201d Nedved said.\r\nSAM WORRAD<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new gorilla named Mjukuu was born at Taronga Zoo on Tuesday October 28. The baby boy was born to female Mbeli and male Kibali, and things are going well according to gorilla keeper Vera Nedved. \u201cKibali is starting to take his role of silverback more seriously,\u201d she said. \u201cHe briefly checked his son after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1592,1588,1590,1589,630,1591],"class_list":["post-1853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-birth","tag-gorilla","tag-kibali","tag-mjukuu","tag-taronga-zoo","tag-vera-nedved"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"A new gorilla named Mjukuu was born at Taronga Zoo on Tuesday October 28. The baby boy was born to female Mbeli and male Kibali, and things are going well according to gorilla keeper Vera Nedved. \u201cKibali is starting to take his role of silverback more seriously,\u201d she said. \u201cHe briefly checked his son after the birth and now he..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"1592":{"name":"birth","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=birth"},"1588":{"name":"gorilla","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=gorilla"},"1590":{"name":"Kibali","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=kibali"},"1589":{"name":"Mjukuu","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=mjukuu"},"630":{"name":"Taronga Zoo","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=taronga-zoo"},"1591":{"name":"Vera Nedved","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vera-nedved"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1856,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions\/1856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}