It’s a girl! Dublin Zoo wants your help naming its new baby gorilla

Calling all animal lovers - and anyone with a heart not completely made of stone.

There's a new arrival at Dublin Zoo and they need a name for her. The zoo has revealed that its newborn baby gorilla is a girl. She was born to mum Kafi and dad Bangui at the beginning of April after eight and half long months, weighing less than five and a half pounds at birth. It took zookeepers a few weeks to determine her sex as mum Kafi kept her tight to her chest after she was born. She's now thriving and settling in with the rest of the western lowland gorilla troop.

"Hugely significant"

The baby's birth is "hugely significant" as western lowland gorillas are critically endangered in the wild. Kafi arrived at Dublin Zoo in 2012 and has watched other female gorillas welcome offspring so zoo staff are delighted that she's finally become a mum herself.

"Kafi is doing a fantastic job so far as a first-time mother, keeping the young baby physically close in these crucial early stages," Helen Clarke-Bennett, Team Leader of the African Plains at Dublin Zoo said after her birth.

Naming the newborn

Now Dublin Zoo is asking for help with a name for the baby gorilla. It wants to christen her with something that reflects her West African heritage. Members of the public can submit their suggestions for a name here. Anyone who enters will be in with a chance to win an annual family pass to Dublin Zoo and a year's free electricity.