Kate Perez / The Seattle Times (TNS)

SEATTLE – Woodland Park Zoo will move its baby gorilla to a new family at another facility after it had difficulty bonding with its mother, the zoo announced.

The unnamed male gorilla baby, born on June 28, was unable to bond immediately with Akenji, a first-time mother. Zoo staff had to care for the gorilla around the clock, the zoo said in a blog post.

The zoo tried to train three other experienced gorilla mothers from the park to act as surrogate mothers for the baby, but the training was not progressing quickly enough, it said.

The facility is working with the Gorilla Species Survival Plan, a cooperative breeding program of recognized zoos, to relocate the baby to a new location and with a surrogate mother.

“We are confident the cub will find a good home and will announce final details once he arrives safely,” Martin Ramirez, acting senior director of animal care at Woodland Park Zoo, said in the blog post.

Gorillas are social by nature and as babies they typically spend constant time with their mother, which helps them build trust and security. When this type of care and interaction is missing, it harms the baby’s social development, the zoo said.

“The longer he is cared for exclusively by humans, the less he learns the complex social signals of gorillas and the higher the risk that he will imprint on humans,” Ramirez said.

Further details about his accommodation will be announced in the future, the zoo said.

The newborn was the 16th gorilla born at Woodland Park Zoo.

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