Hogle Zoo celebrates Mother’s Day with the primates

SALT LAKE CITY — Mother’s Day is a special time to send love to all the special moms in our lives.

Mothers come with different family dynamics, structures, and stories. It is also much more similar than one may think, no matter where one is. That includes the Hogle Zoo.

Day in and day out, Lexi Yang, the primate supervisor at Hogle Zoo.

“This is Tuah and Acara behind us,” Yang said, introducing the two orangutans.

While they may swing from trees, she says at the end of the day, we can recognize a mom in her element.

“They’re really special because they are actually sister and brother, but she’s also basically his mom,” Yang said.

It is the love they show and share that makes Mom a mom.

“So, when she was nine years old, he was born, and their parents both sadly passed away within a few months of each other, and so Tuah didn’t have parents and was only a few months old, and he was very helpless,” Yang explained.

Eight years later, looking after Tuah, Acara still shares that motherly love.

“She’s taught him everything in his past eight years, from finding food to what to do if like some scary noise happens to how to climb the trees,” Yang said.

She also said gorillas sport a mom mode.

“When they’re newborns, they can’t crawl. So, they’re basically just clinging on to mom, and she’s holding ’em 24-7,” Yang said.

Georgia is the youngest gorilla at the Hogle Zoo, born in July 2020.

“If Georgia ever gets scared, or they think like something’s scary’s going on, Jabali will go and grab her and make sure she’s okay and carry her around,” Yang said.

For the second year in a row, the Siddoway family visited the Hogle Zoo on Mother’s Day. They noticed how mothering overlapped in many ways among the monkeys and apes.

With generations spending time together: “Nothing like being a grandma!”

For those who are not moms, the saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ is true, too.

“Something that’s really cool about Colobus monkeys is that they do what’s called alloparenting. Allomothering means that all the females and the troop take turns, like carrying them around and helping to care for them,” Yang explained.

She said it gives mom a break and helps them down the road learn how to be a mom just like all those before.

“Like the little ones, they’re so bouncy and so full of energy!”