Kindi and Kweli continue to delight guests visiting Gorilla Forest. 16-month-old Kindi is still inseparable from surrogate mom Kweli. The two are often seen sitting together in the upper areas of indoor habitats, enjoying the vegetables and fruits they’ve gathered from a recent scatter feed when keepers distribute lettuce and other vegetation — all part of the gorillas’ diets — to encourage their natural instinct to forage.

As Kindi grows she is becoming more playful. Guests may see her climbing the ropes or the mesh in her exhibit — sometimes all the way to the top – then flipping down only to start over. The young gorilla has also been learning how to beat her chest — a playful behavior. Most animals learn adult behaviors through play as youngsters though they don’t necessarily mean the same thing from the youngsters or infants.