51st Baby Gorilla Born at the Cincinnati Zoo

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has welcomed its newest — and cutest — addition, a baby boy gorilla born to 12-year-old Gladys on the morning of Sept. 20, 2025. The tiny primate arrived at 8:32 a.m., marking the 51st gorilla birth in the zoo’s history. Both the mom and baby are healthy, and staff members say that Gladys is already proving herself to be a natural in the realm of motherhood.

The tiny primate arrived at 8:32 a.m., marking the 51st gorilla birth in the zoo’s history. Both the mom and baby are healthy, and staff say Gladys is already proving herself to be a natural.

“The [Zoo Volunteer Observers] reported signs of labor throughout the early hours on Saturday morning, and [Gladys] was in active labor when I arrived at 5:30 a.m.,” Ashley Ashcraft, the zoo’s head gorilla keeper, said in a Sept. 22 press release. “A few hours later, keepers had the honor of quietly observing her birth. She has been very attentive to the baby and is doing all the right things. We are so proud of her.”

Gladys’ journey to motherhood hasn’t been simple. When she arrived in Cincinnati from the Gladys Porter Zoo in 2013, she was just an infant herself who needed a team of human surrogates to care for her after her birth mother showed no maternal instincts.

Since then, she has grown up in the public eye, becoming a beloved figure at the zoo. Last year, she made headlines for recovering from a broken arm with the help of a 3D-printed titanium cast.

This birth is also a first for the baby’s father, 23-year-old silverback Mbeli, who is now stepping in to play the protective role within the gorilla troop.

Beyond the celebration, the birth carries a deeper significance. Western lowland gorillas, like Gladys and her newborn, are critically endangered in the wild, with fewer than 175,000 individuals left. The Cincinnati Zoo continues to support conservation efforts in the Republic of Congo (where many western lowland gorillas live), including the long-running Mbeli Bai Study.

For now, Gladys and her baby are bonding behind the scenes, a change of pace after she was on display through the zoo’s livestream over the past month. Visitors can still see the other gorillas during regular hours, and the zoo is inviting the public to share name suggestions through its social media channels.

Find the Cincinnati Zoo on social media at @cincinnatizoo. For more information about the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, visit cincinnatizoo.org.

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