Gorilla Baby Jameela's Growing Bond with Foster Mom Is So Beautiful

It's an update worth cheering about. Just weeks after she was transferred to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio, Western Lowland gorilla Jameela is really thriving. In fact, a video released by the zoo shows Jameela and her foster mom "Freddy" spending some time together. It seems like these two have really bonded!

Frederika, or "Freddy," as she's known, has been Jameela's foster mom for only a short time, but it really is like Jameela is one of her own.

The zoo released a video of the two which shows Freddy nursing Jameela and her carrying the baby on her back.

“It has been going really well," WFAA reports animal curator Dr. Elena Less said in the clip. "Freddy picked her back up, she’s putting her on her back and letting her ride on her back…and she’s carrying her,” she explained.

“As the day progressed, we started to see a lot more bonding between Freddy and Jameela," she continued. "She was carrying her almost all of the time, putting her in nests, and setting up nests for her and laying next to her, and then we were so excited to see Jameela nursing from Freddy. We’ve seen it twice and we do feel that Jameela’s getting quite a bit of nutrition from that.”

"We are continuing to ask Freddy to bring her over for bottles as well, and Freddy has been doing a great job of doing that," she said.

View the original article to see embedded media.

According to Less, the zoo will keep introducing Jameela to the rest of their gorilla group over the next couple of days.

Jameela's journey has had its ups and downs so far. Born via c-section in January at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, Jameela's biological mother didn't show maternal behaviors towards her, causing zoo workers to remove the baby from her mother's care.

She was ultimately brought to Cleveland Metropark with the hope that Freddy would bond with her. Luckily things went well in that first two hour meeting. Freddy took to the baby like she was her own child.

The meeting ended because Freddy's other foster child, Kayembe, became a little too rambunctious with Jameela. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the zoo is hoping to schedule a second meeting with Jameela and her foster-sibling soon.

While Jameela isn't in her foster mother's care full-time yet, for now zoo officials could consider this second meeting a huge success.

“We are monitoring them and making sure everything continues to go well," Less said.

Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos. Or, share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips.