Umande Finally Meets Mom
Umande now has a gorilla mom to call his very own! Lulu, a 41-year-old female, and Umande have been getting to know each other since his arrival at the Columbus Zoo in early October. They seemed to form a bond early on. He would vocalize when he saw the other gorillas, but his vocalization was different and longer towards Lulu, and she would vocalize back. On the first day he was allowed to touch the gorillas through the mesh, he spent the entire day near Lulu. They touched their tongues and noses together and built nests next to each other on opposite sides of the mesh. At one point when Lulu leaned against the mesh, Umande grabbed on to her like he was ready to go for a ride on her back.
I wonder how his keeper's doing. Every time we went up to the zoo, the same woman was taking care of the baby.
