CLEVELAND — Lights! Camera! Action!
Cleveland is about to be in the global spotlight once again, thanks to a few standout locals who call the city home. From their humble beginnings to a worldwide audience, the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo’s gorillas are about to go live. Cleveland MetroParks Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Manderfield told News 5 they were approached by Netflix about a live stream from inside the gorilla habitat.
“We’re so excited to get Cleveland the exposure globally,” she said. Every Thursday in September from 10 a.m. until noon, viewers can check out a live look at the habitat’s single male, four females and two youngsters. You may remember when almost 2-year-old Kayambe was born a couple of years back; he was the first baby gorilla born at the zoo in its history. Now they have a new baby girl in the mix as well. That’s what got the attention of the shot-callers at Netflix.
Watch our report on the birth of Kayambe back in 2021:
“We couldn’t be more excited to tell the story of Cleveland MetroParks Zoo and the care that these gorillas here have been given,” said Manderfield.
Now every Thursday this month, the zoo’s keepers will be sure this troop is ready to put their best foot forward by staging food all around the habitat.
“So they’ll really explore it, they’ll be eating and little brother Kayambe, who again is going to be 2 very soon, he’s very active and playful," Manderfield said.
Zoo visitors are excited to see it all play out on their televisions. Heather Riel was at the Zoo Tuesday with her daughter.
“I’d love to be able to see our zoo and our animals featured on such a large platform, I think that’d be great for our zoo,” she said. The mother and her daughter are zoo members, so they’ve already seen the new baby girl gorilla three times. But all they know to call her is…baby gorilla. That’s because the naming of the new addition will be part of the global streaming event.
The zoo will post three name options on its social media pages for the public to vote on, starting with the first live stream on Thursday morning. The new name will be announced during the second episode.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
