Famous Gorilla Gladys is mom to one year old Mboka Jo

 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Daddy Jomo with the kids.

  

Gladys and Mboka Jo when he was about a month old. 

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. 

Riding on his mom's back, Mboka Jo sees his birthday cake

At the party, the family,
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.

Elle had some blue "world" treats

Gladys and Mboka Jo looked for treats in the blue raffia

Chewie and Elle celebrate

The Birthday Cake. Elle wants some. MBeli thinks it is his cake

                                 Mboka Jo schemes how to get some of his cake

                                             while his dad Mbeli is guarding it

                                                             The prize

                                                      My Birthday Cake!

                                                                  Mboka Jo gets a taste

                                             

                       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.

                                   Chewie is expecting her first baby this winter.

                                              Mboka Jo will have a playmate.

        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

Gorilla Tales: Ndume's life after the famous Koko

Ndume at the Cincinnati Zoo. Life is good.

 Ndume started his life 44 years ago at the Cincinnati Zoo, and has experienced an unconventional celebrity-adjacent lifestyle, a lot of drama and even a famous custody battle before returning to a normal gorilla life in 2019, returning to his original home at the Cincinnati Zoo.  These days, he happily looks out over his troop of two favored gorilla ladies, M'linzi and her daughter Mara, enjoying life as a silverback should. 

Ndume

Ndume, here in the inside habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo, has a very distinctive profile, with a very tall almost pointed head. 

He spent his early years at the Cincinnati Zoo, and one of his playmates was his half sister M'linzi, who was about a year younger. He moved to the Brookfield Zoo when he was seven years old, and while there fathered four babies, Baraka, Mtu Chuma, and Zuza, plus one who only lived a few days. All have since passed away.

Ndume swirling his pink blanket.

When he was ten years old, Ndume returned to Cincinnati for a short time, but was soon selected as companion to the famous Koko, with the legal agreement that he would return to the Cincinnati Zoo upon the death of Koko. 

Handsome Ndume.

His role as companion to world renowned sign language  gorilla Koko at the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside California started with high hopes, but led to frequent isolation, as Koko seemed to prefer people and even kittens to other gorillas. In addition, successful gorilla troops include a silverback and multiple females. In the Gorilla Foundation scenario, Koko was the only female.

Ndume 

According to the Gorilla Foundation, Koko had selected Ndume through a kind of "video dating," which was probably choosing whom she liked by watching videos of various gorilla suitors.

Ndume  was born October 10, 1981 at the Cincinnati Zoo to Ramses and Rosie (Mata Hari). Rosie went on to become the first and only gorilla mother to give birth through in vitro fertilization anywhere (this was also at the Cincinnati Zoo). The baby girl was named Timu. Rosie/ Mata Hari died in 2018 at age 43 at the North Carolina Zoo. Father Ramses, who is also father of M'linzi, now lives in the Fort Worth Zoo and at age 55 in April is one of the oldest gorillas in the world. Ramses' father was King Tut, the first silverback gorilla of the Cincinnati Zoo.

King Tut, Ndume's grandfather

 The famous Samantha, who had so many babies at the Cincinnati Zoo, was Ndume's aunt. Ndume's father Ramses was also the father of eleven other babies, including M'linzi, who has remained at the Cincinnati Zoo since her birth in 1982 and is now part of his troop.

Mara in foreground, and Ndume in 2021.

When Ndume first returned to the Cincinnati Zoo in 2019, after the judgment in the custody lawsuit, he was placed with M'linzi's daughter Mara, along with Chewie, Mara's half sister through their father. Ndume seemed very happy with the arrangement of having two ladies after so many years of being alone, and especially was fond of Mara. 

Ndume's original troop in Cincinnati, Chewie and Mara in 2021. 

When the beloved Silverback Jomo passed away in March of 2022, the Cincinnati Zoo felt that Jomo's death left a leadership vacuum in his troop, which was composed of younger females and M'linzi, who lacked the strong personality needed. At the time, no outside Silverback was available and the zoo needed to form an all female troop, so Chewie was brought over from Ndume's troop, as she knew how to be in charge.  

Mara in her jungle

Mara in front, and her mom M'linzi back

M'linzi  then became the third member of Ndume's troop, along with her daughter Mara. It has worked out very well. 

M'linzi, in the inside habitat.

In late 2022, Silverback M'Beli arrived from Denver, and became the leader of the girls troop, and since then they have welcomed a baby boy, Mboka Jo, son of Gladys. This troop is now made up of M'Beli, Chewie, Gladys, Baby Mboka Jo, young Elle and young Mona/Mondika. When Gladys was a baby, she came from another zoo in need of a surrogate mother. Keepers cared for Baby Gladys until M'linzi was chosen as surrogate mom.

The third rotating group at the Cincinnati Zoo is a bachelor troop from Detroit, half brothers Chip, Pende and Kongo. 

The three troops are rotated between a fairly new indoor enclosure, the spacious woodsy outside habitat, and behind the scenes,  so anytime you visit during good weather, you probably will see two troops. During the winter, you will probably only see one troop, whichever group is rotated into the inside habitat, although with glare it is harder to get good photos there.

Ndume holding court in the inside habitat.

Ndume is closely related to his ladies, M'linzi being his half sister and Mara being his niece, but all lady gorillas at the Cincinnati Zoo who are not approved for breeding are on birth control, and that is the case for Ndume's troop.

Ndume

Life at the Gorilla Foundation

Ndume's life is settled now, a proper gorilla's life with a troop of ladies, just as it should be.  Not so, in his younger days at the Gorilla Foundation.

When he was ten years old, with his ownership still remaining with the Cincinnati Zoo, he was moved to California and the Gorilla Foundation, where Koko was the star pupil in the experiment to teach gorillas to communicate with sign language. Reportedly, Koko knew how to sign 1000 words, and could understand 2000 words.  Ndume also was taught to sign. 

Ndume was brought there to be mate for Koko, but Koko was not interested in him as a boyfriend, just as a friend.

Koko was famous for many things, including adopting a kitten, and a book was written about this, called "Koko's Kitten." Koko was also visited by many celebrities such as Betty White and Robin Williams, and was featured on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, where she did what she had seen Fred Rogers do on TV, take his shoes off.

Koko also was the subject of two cover stories in National Geographic.

However, controversy swirled around the Gorilla Foundation. Some charged that Koko was just imitating her teacher, that the interpretations were subjective, and that the gorillas were not getting timely veterinary care, that their diet was not appropriate. In any case, Koko's positive publicity brought public awareness of gorillas and their emotions.

Ndume also learned some sign language, and there was another male gorilla there, Michael. Since Koko was not interested romantically in Ndume, after Michael died in 2000, the lone silverback was sometimes isolated and that is not a good thing for gorillas, who are social animals. 

When Koko died at the age of 46 in 2018 at the Gorilla Foundation, the Cincinnati Zoo required that the original agreement be honored, that Ndume would return to them upon the event of Koko's death. The Gorilla Foundation refused, saying that such a move would be detrimental to Ndume, that the gorilla was attached to and dependent upon his human caregivers, and the move could even cause his death.

The lawsuit dragged on for a year, but the Cincinnati Zoo at last was awarded custody. Ndume returned to his original home, where he learned to be a regular gorilla again, first adjusting to zoo life, and then with a troop of Chewie and Mara. Several of his human companions from the Gorilla Foundation traveled with him and helped him adjust for the first month or two.

Slowly but surely, Ndume got to know the other gorillas. 

Primate keeper Ron Evans, who knew Ndume as a baby,
here with young Gladys..

Ndume was also reunited with primate keeper Ron Evans, who first took care of Ndume when he was young. 

Hi, big handsome guy, says Mara. 

Mara flirts with Ndume. 

Mara runs away, playing hard to get. Ndume runs after her,
 brings her back. 

Here comes Ndume

Hello pretty gorilla

Gorilla courtship.

Ndume seems content now at the Cincinnati Zoo, living the life of a Silverback leader of his own troop.

The Cincinnati Zoo celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2025, as the second oldest zoo in the US.