First-Time Gorilla Mom Totally Enamored with Her New Baby at Dublin Zoo

Congratulations! It’s a…

Well, actually, we don’t know the sex of the baby yet. Because of the new mom’s welcomed attachment to her baby–keeping the little one close to her chest–keepers have been unable to determine the tiny gorilla’s sex. So beautiful.

According to the Irish zoo, their western lowland gorilla Kafi became a mom for the first time on April 1. The primate welcomed a healthy baby ape, who weighed around 5.5 pounds at birth. The Dublin Zoo says both Kafi and her baby are doing splendidly and are “so cute,” as you can see…

And we can’t forget about dad! Bangui, who arrived at Dublin Zoo last year, has also embraced parenthood.

“Kafi is doing a fantastic job so far as a first-time mother, keeping the young baby physically close in these crucial early stages. Bangui is proving to be an attentive father and at night has been sleeping close to Kafi and the baby. Kafi seems comfortable and at ease and we expect her to mix with the rest of the gorilla troop very soon,” Helen Clarke-Bennett, team leader of the African Plains at Dublin Zoo, said in a statement.

Clarke-Bennett added that Kafi probably learned her stellar parenting skills from the other females in her troop. The new mom has “witnessed other female gorillas give birth and raise their young which has been a huge help in teaching Kafi how to look after her own baby.”

The unnamed gorilla infant is hailed as a “great step forward” for the critically-endangered western lowland gorilla species.

Dublin Zoo says the number of western lowland gorillas is expected to tragically drop by 80 percent from 1980 to 2046 because of deforestation, hunting and the effects of the highly contagious Ebola virus, so each and every gorilla birth is a cherished event. I mean, just look at them…

How could we not cherish that?