When zookeepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium came to work Thursday morning, they were met with unexpected news. Sully the gorilla, who everyone had thought was a male, had given birth to a small baby.
Sully has lived at the facility with his mother since 2019 and the animal team has always been sure it was a male, writes CNN.
The fact that the zookeepers missed that Sully was a female is due, among other things, to the fact that gorillas have no prominent genitals and males and females look very similar up to the age of eight.
It is only when the gorillas get older that the males develop their distinctive head bumps, get bigger and get silvery backs.
It is rare to see gorillas pregnant
When Sully arrived in Columbus, she was a “young and healthy animal” and required no medical procedures that could have led to an earlier discovery, the zoo said in a news release.
The pregnancy was also missed, according to the zoo, because gorillas rarely show outward signs of being pregnant and they naturally have large bellies.
The zoo says the little baby is a healthy female. As of Saturday, the animal care team had not yet approached the cub, as they want to give the mother and baby time to bond with each other and the rest of the group.