The baby gorilla boy has a name March 29, 2018

The youngest member of the Budapest gorilla troop saw the daylight first on 23 December. He is the second born of N’yaounda, the mother gorilla, and the fifth infant in a row born in our Zoo. In January and February the entire country monitored his condition, since visits to the Great Ape House had to be temporarily restricted due to the changed behaviour of the mother animal. Nearly all media reported on this and it was a subject of public pronouncements; what is more, even comedians covered this phenomenon.

The growing baby was recently three month old and so the Zoo decided it was the right time to find a name for him. We asked the public to help us choose a name: three names were put to a vote on our website (Indigo, Ithemba and Ukusinda) between 26 March and mid-day on 29 March. The most votes were cast in favour of Indigo, so the infant gorilla, who is already known to be male, has been registered in the zoo records and in the International Gorilla Studbook under this name.

Just recently, we have extended the opening hours of the Great Ape House. This was allowed by the understanding cooperation of our visitors, since the mother animal’s behaviour became much more relaxed over the recent weeks.

From now on, the gorillas can be visited from 12 noon every day, but until 4 p.m. rather than until 2 p.m. The public can use a larger part of the House’s viewing area than in the past weeks, but the number of visitors present at any time in the House is still restricted. Our volunteers make sure that this is respected.

It is still important to comply with the simple but self-explanatory rules of conduct that we usually expect of our visitors to ensure peace and quiet for our animals. Primarily we request to refrain from f flash photography, banging on the glass and loud speech in the viewing area. This is not only in the animals’ interest but also in the public’s, since if an animal has to face constant flashing lights then it will hide in the back section of its enclosure and will not even think of turning towards the visitors.