happy birthday handsome!

tuesday was baby gorilla hasani's (meaning handsome) first birthday! if you don't know hasani's story, in short, he is the first born to papa jonesy and mama monifa. his mom wasn't quite into it, so the primate staff stepped in and hand raised him (kudos!). during this time, veteran mama troop mate bawang showed interest in the baby and the staff began to train both hasani to take a bottle from the keeper through fencing, and bawang to present hasani to the keeper for the bottle. bawang has been a real hero (bravo!) in completing this journey so that hasani could be integrated into the troop and grow up around his gorilla family. ... here are some screen caps ( i know i'll figure out how to put the crisp video footage up sometime!) from my fav moments of the "party"! the gorillas were treated to ice treats of fruit in a huge ice cake and ice cupcakes! compliments of sf ice co. who did a great job in creating the tasties! hasani only tasted a bit of one, sticking his finger in a cup cake to get the yogurt! but all the big gals loved it! nneka tried to steal the cake and rolled it over to the tree she sometimes makes a nest in. she looked up, but i guess just couldn't figure out how to get it up there! i know she wanted to tho! poor papa jonesy i think was too preoccupied with all the humans (not his fav's) to chill enough to enjoy the treats. hopefully after hours he got some, as it was soooooooo cold i'm sure it took all day for those treats to melt, if they even did at all!