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Your morning adorable: Baby gorilla Hasani and his adoptive mom make debut at San Francisco Zoo

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The San Francisco Zoo‘s young western lowland gorilla, Hasani, seems to be thriving under the care of Bawang, his adoptive mother.

Zoo staff stepped in to help when Hasani’s birth mother, Monifa, rejected him -- and while they were hand-raising the baby, they were also teaching Bawang valuable gorilla-parenting skills. Bawang took over Hasani’s care in late April, and the pair made their public debut in the zoo’s Jones Family Gorilla Preserve last week.

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Hasani means ‘handsome’ in Swahili; it was selected in March through a baby-naming contest held by the zoo. He’s the first of his critically endangered species born at the zoo in 11 years. More photos of baby and new mother after the jump!

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photos 1-4: Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press
Photos 5-7: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Photo 8: Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press

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