A BABY gorilla is being lovingly hand reared by keepers at a Kent wild animal park after her mother rejected her.

Tamki showed no sign of being maternal and keepers soon realised that baby Tia was not getting the normal care she needed.

Phil Ridges, of the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, near Ashford, said: "She was dehydrated and in need of some love and attention just like human babies.

"Between us we have been surrogate mothers, spending 24 hours a day with her and she is progressing well, putting on weight and taking in her new surroundings."

In nappies and dependent on powdered milk, Tia has now been transferred to sister park, Howletts, near Canterbury.

She is spending some time with two other youngsters until they are re-introduced to a safe natural habitat in Gabon, Africa.

Extinct by 2020

* With no more than 100,000 Western lowland gorillas left in the world, they will be extinct by 2020 if the number continues to decline at its present rate because of deforestation, the ebola virus and the bushmeat trade.

* Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks play an important role in the successful breeding of captive gorillas with the two parks housing 74 Western lowland gorillas between them, the largest collection in human care.

* The Aspinall Foundation continues to expand its colony at the Kent parks as well as returning captive-bred gorillas to Africa via its rescue and rehabilitation programme in the Congo and Gabon.

For more information visit www.totallywild.net