MOTHER FORMS UNIQUE BOND WITH MOTHER GORILLA IN ZOO

A mother named Emmily Austin visited Boston's Franklin Park Zoo with her five-month-old son, Canyon. During her visit, Emmily found herself forming an unexpected bond with a female gorilla named Kiki, also a mother.

"She kept looking around the corner of the cave. I was like, 'She's looking at Canyon.'"

"I was holding him up to the glass, and was like 'Yeah, look, it's my baby.' And I was like, 'How cool would it be if she came to see him?' I had said that several times but I wasn't really expecting it."

Kiki is a mother to four daughters and a son, Pablo, born in October 2020. The Western Lowland Gorilla, who is native to Central Africa, made her way over to the glass that the Austin's were peering through. 

Mainer Emmily Austin and her family visited the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston last weekend. That's where Emmily, and her 5-week-old son discovered an incredible bond with Kiki the gorilla, who's a mother herself. Be sure to catch the full story tonight at 6! @newscentermaine pic.twitter.com/KoCEg188kK

— Sean Stackhouse (@StackhouseNCME) May 7, 2021

"It was so sweet. For, like, well over five minutes, she just sat there watching him and just staring at him so lovingly."

Eventually, Kiki brought over Pablo to meet baby Austin. "Her face was just so in love. She was showing her baby to my baby.

"I was just in awe. Kiki was trying to pet his face through the glass and trying to hold his hand ... it was just the most beautiful thing. You could see the emotion in her eyes."

Even though Canyon slept through most of the experience, Emmily is excited to return to the zoo to rekindle the relationship she made with Kiki. 

"When I walked into the zoo that day, I never could've imagined that we'd have this experience. It was so beautiful, and we walked out over the moon. We had so many people stop us and tell us that was the most beautiful thing they've ever watched. It was so touching, it really was. You could feel the emotions were just in the air."