kind of exciting that to think that it's been a half a century since you know I
saw Samantha being born when she was born she was one of the first two
gorillas born here at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1970 and at the time you know it was
a huge event I myself as only a 13 year old member of the Zoo's Junior Zoologist
Club and it was my first day of gorilla watch early in the afternoon we noticed
that she started her mother Penelope started climbing up the front bars and
you could see that the head starting to crown she's about the sixth oldest
gorilla in North America and everything just happened so quickly after that and
they actually had an ambulance come and take Samantha to Good Sam Hospital where
she met up with Sam the baby gorilla that had been born eight days previously
and they went over there for several weeks and then nurses from Good
Samaritan Hospital came back to the zoo and helped take care of them for a long
period after that but apparently they didn't have enough people to watch the
baby suddenly because they they were bringing him over to the zoo that night
and the next thing I know and my phone rings and there's a woman who needs help
I she said we need help to take care of what is you doing tonight and so that's
how it started it went well she was quiet and she let me feed her
Samantha was named Samantha because of the good help
Good Sam Hospital gave us on her neonate care back then
I guess I at the time being only 13 years old didn't really understand you
know the importance of this I mean I knew that we were expecting a gorilla
births but and there hadn't been that many in the world at that time so I was
just you know thrilled to be a part of making this birth successful she was
born in our original ape house which back in the 1950s was a state-of-the-art
place little did I know that half a century later I'd be sitting here
recounting that the the you know the whole process that happened and actually
still seeing Samantha here it was such a such a novice thing to have baby
gorillas back then like I said now we've had 50 of them born here and rarely
do we ever have to to get involved with hand-rearing so we've really come a long way
and Samantha has been a big part of what we've done here and then she was part of
the first group that got to enjoy a new big outdoor exhibit that we built here
in 1978 and it was one of the first major outdoor gorilla exhibits anywhere
and now a few years ago we built a new indoor areas and then of course here
comes Samantha from behind just walked right past everybody and walked right in
there first like the leader she's always been in her gorilla family even at 50
years old is able to maintain that strong leadership female leadership role
within her group we have a lot more space for the gorillas we are keeping
gorillas and better social groupings and even though Samantha herself was hand
reared she became one of our best mothers because Samantha's just very
exceptional and did a really good job with her kids she was able to kind of
model that behavior for other young females
she's a critical component to the cohesive nature of our gorilla groups
over the years we see it's far more common these days that mothers raise our
own offspring if we have to hand raise we know it's critically important to get
them back in as early as possible with a with a foster mother she always when I
have seen her has a little one around or playing around or somebody she is a good
teacher very caring and loving to them just great surrogate mom to Elle
Elle is actually four years old now and she actually is an orphan gorilla and
Samantha has taken on a role at 50 well even before 50 but at fifty years old to
be Elle's foster mom she shares kind of her gorillas wisdom
with them at least that's what it seems like Elle's growing up really nicely
I think that's a yeah it's just uh Samantha in a nutshell right there fifty
is still taking care of babies she's a mother she's a grandmother she's a
great-grandmother and probably in a few years when Gladys who is her one of her
great granddaughters here has a baby she'll be a great great grandmother
which is crazy to think about she's a ambassador for wild gorillas
unlike any other animal that I've ever worked with Samantha stands out the most
because i did happen to witness you know Samantha's birth I you know every
time I'd see an article about them I clip it out and save it and now I have
these 50 year old newspaper clippings that I can read and it just brings me
back to that that day that I still in fifty years later have a picture of me
holding her as a baby she's why I do what I do
she's my motivation you you can't help but be compelled by her to want to do
more and and it's a real privilege to have been part of her life
happy birthday Samantha we all love you so much you're the best girl ever
you