real gorilla as quickly as possible. before we get to that point we have to gorilla-fy her a little bit. we try to do everything we can to make things like a gorilla mom would be, like a furry vest or the black scrubs to look like the dark gorilla skin. she lives in the same areas with the gorillas. we make gorilla vocalizations to gladys. and we have a whole big team taking care of her 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. so, yeah, it takes a really good team effort to take care of gladys. the gorilla vest looks terrific on you. i guess the question is, is there a possibility that it won t be enough? that by the time you re done gladys will be so accustomed to hume humans that she won t take to the actual gorilla mom? that s actually a very good question. but fortunately zoos have gotten together years ago and put together a comprehensive protocol on how to approach gorilla reintroduction so we know from our collective experience that as long as we try and focus on getting gladys
the name gladys. and her mother was a first-time mom and unfortunately didn t take care of her from birth. that happens sometimes because gorillas have to learn a lot of skills they need to know like maternal care. the gladys zoo did an excellent job taking care of her themselves but didn t have any options for a surrogate mom there because all their other gorillas had babies themselves. so we all got together, cincinnati, gladys porter, the gorilla species survival plan which manages gorillas in north america, looked for the best option, and it was to come to cincinnati to be with some of our experienced mothers. you know what i think is so interesting you ve got ten humans acting as a surrogate mother to gladys, and they actually wear sort of furry vests over black uniforms, if you will, right, to feel like much like normal as possible? like i m wearing here today. yeah, we try and make every we try and act like gorillas to gladys. we re just holding her temporarily. we re keep
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