Heartwarming images show the inseparable bond between a newborn baby gorilla with his mother at Texas zoo

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A new addition is being welcomed with open arms at the oldest zoo in Texas. 

Fort Worth Zoo announced Wednesday that an adorable new Western lowland gorilla was born to parents Gracie and Elmo. He is the first gorilla to be born to the pair.

It's also the first birth of a Western lowland gorilla at the Fort Worth Zoo, which first opened in 1909. 

The baby gorilla was born last Saturday and has not been named yet.

Adorable: This male western lowland gorilla was born December 5 at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas. He is the first gorilla to be born to parents Gracie and Elmo

Precious: The yet-to-be-named ape is the first birth of a western lowland gorilla at the Fort Worth Zoo

Bonded: Zoo officials said the gorilla will stay close to his mother Gracie (pictured) while getting acclimated at the World of Primates exhibit housed there

Zoo officials said the gorilla will stay close to his mother while getting acclimated at the World of Primates exhibit housed there. 

The Fort Worth Zoo is the only zoo in America to have all four great ape species - gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. 

The zoo participates in a breeding program for gorillas to help prevent their extinction.  

'Western lowland gorillas are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to hunting and disease,' the zoo said in a statement. 

The Fort Worth Zoo (above) is the only zoo in America to have all four great ape species - gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos

'Gorillas also have an alarmingly low reproductive rate (at an observed rate of 3 percent population increase), so even if there was a drastic decline in hunting and disease, it could take at least 75 years for population recovery to occur in optimistic scenarios.' 

In September, Chicago Zoological Society officials announced the birth of a gorilla named Zachary at the Brookfield Zoo. 

His arrival added a fourth generation of the Western lowland gorillas at the zoo's Tropic World: Africa Habitat.  

As male lowland gorillas age, they develop a broad silvery-white saddle on their back, from which the term 'silverback' derives, according to the Chicago Zoological Society.