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| One year old Mboka Jo and a birthday treat |
Miracle baby Gladys was raised by keepers and then a surrogate gorilla mom after her mother rejected her. Some had questioned whether Gladys would know how to be a good mother, but those fears faded away as 13 year old Gladys seemed to know exactly how to be the best mother to her son Mboka Jo, right from the beginning, when she had her first baby in September of 2025.
Mboka Jo in June
Mboka Jo just celebrated his first birthday at the Cincinnati Zoo with an elaborate party, well attended by his fans and friends.
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| Mboka Jo has a cupcake at his party, Gladys looks on. |
Gladys was born in the Gladys Porter Zoo in Texas on January 29, 2013, to first time mother Kiazi, who showed no interest in taking care of her baby.
In February of 2013 Gladys was brought to the Cincinnati Zoo, where there were four potential surrogate gorilla mothers who could help raise the infant. A ground-breaking method of "gorillafication" for the baby included the human keepers wearing specially designed fake fur vests so Gladys could hang onto her caretaker just as she would a gorilla mother. The mothering job was divided among a number of keepers, but they all wore the gorilla fur vests and spoke to Gladys in what you might call gorilla language. Her caretakers crawled around, ate bananas, and did what they could to teach Gladys how to be a gorilla.
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| Baby Gladys in 2013, hangs onto one of her human caretakers, before she bonded with surrogate mom Mlinzi |
This eased the transition when Mlinzi, one of the potential surrogate mothers, stepped in to raise Gladys, although the baby still had to be brought to the bars to drink her special gorilla milk formula from a bottle. It worked so well with Gladys that, ever since, the gorilla fake fur vests are commonly used when a baby gorilla needs keeper care.
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| Head Primate Keeper Ron Evans at the time, with Baby Gladys |
Mara, the late Samantha and Chewie eventually joined the mothering group as Mlinzi cared for baby Gladys.
As Gladys grew, Silverback Jomo was in the picture, and other babies were born. Gladys could observe as baby Mondika "Mona," born in 2014 to Asha, and Elle, born in 2015 to Anju, were cared for by their mothers and other females in the troop, as well as father Jomo. This provided a good foundation for Gladys when she eventually became a mother. She had some good role models to follow.
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| Daddy Jomo with the kids. |
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| Gladys and Mboka Jo when he was about a month old. |
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| Gladys and her baby. |
 Mboka Jo in June, 2026 The First Birthday party for Mboka Jo was held on September 20, with much fanfare, for it was also celebrating World Gorilla Day which was later that week. 
Father Mbeli, Mother Gladys and Baby Mboka Jo. | ||
There were banners galore, special frozen treats, coconuts, some special gorilla cupcakes, and a very fancy and fruity layer cake made of frozen juices.  |
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| Elle had some blue "world" treats |
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| Gladys and Mboka Jo looked for treats in the blue raffia |
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| Chewie and Elle celebrate |
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| The Birthday Cake. Elle wants some. MBeli thinks it is his cake |
Mboka Jo schemes how to get some of his cake
The prize
Elle finally gets some cake, and what does she do?
She picks it up and tosses it straight into the moat!
Chewie munches on a frozen flower treat.
Baby gorillas like Mboka Jo have a white spot on their tails,
so troop members can easily identify a baby.
It fades as they get older.
Even with the cake tossed into the moat,
there are plenty more party goodies for all.
All the humans who came to the party were given a gift
of a souvenir pin with a photo of the birthday boy.
Happy First Birthday to Mboka Jo
and Happy World Gorilla Day
