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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Alan Toyne

A moment that changed me: I brought a baby gorilla home – and learned so much about being a parent

Afia riding on Alan’s back in the garden
My parenting ride … Alan and Afia in 2016. Photograph: Ryan Walker

It was 2016, and I’d been a zookeeper for seven years. I lived with my partner and two stepchildren in a Victorian terrace house in Bristol. We’d met when her kids were four and eight, so I had not experienced the early baby stages, the sleepless nights, nappies and bottle-feeding.

But that was about to change.

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