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Ape-napiing attempt by twins' mom foiled at Zoo Atlanta

Maybe eight is enough, but twins apparently are not — at least not for Kuchi, the 21-year-old gorilla at Zoo Atlanta who gave birth to a rare pair on Halloween night.

On Tuesday, Kuchi, seemingly flush with maternal ambition, hijacked another newborn primate. If zoo staff had not intervened, it would have gone down as a historic ape-napping.

ADAM THOMPSON/Zoo Atlanta (enlarge photo) Zoo caretakers hold the three newest members of the gorilla colony: a male (from left), born Monday to Lulu, and male and female twins, born to Kuchi on Oct. 31.

The newest gorilla, it turns out, was born to Lulu, the 6-year-old offspring of Willie B., the famous zoo mascot who died in 2000 at age 42.

Thus, the baby Kuchi briefly "adopted" is the beloved icon's first grandchild.

And now it's back with its rightful mother. Zoo staffers gave Kuchi a knockout shot at about 1 p.m. Tuesday and, while she snoozed, returned the new male gorilla to Lulu.

In the process, they also took the twins from Kuchi to check on their health. At that point, they were able to determine the twins' gender, which had been impossible while Kuchi was nursing them.

It's a boy and a girl.

The decision to intervene was not made hastily, but rather a few hours after Kuchi grabbed Lulu's baby, which was born Monday night.

"Two's enough and there's no way Kuchi could feed all three," zoo spokeswoman Susan Elliott said.

All the gorillas are fine, Elliott added.

No names have been selected yet for the newborns, all fathered by Taz, a 16-year-old silverback.

As with the birth of the twins, Lulu's delivery Monday was a surprise to zoo staff, which was estimating her due date as early next year. But it was not a premature birth, Elliott said. Lulu simply conceived earlier than anyone thought.

Another Willie B. offspring, Kudzoo, is pregnant and expecting to deliver early next year.

The zoo expects attendance to increase with the addition of a playmate for the twin western lowland gorillas. More than 5,200 people visited the zoo on Saturday, with a crowd in excess of 3,000 Sunday.

"They were swarmed over there," Elliott said, referring to the Ford African Rain Forest, home of the zoo's 22 — oops, make that 23 — gorillas.