A baby gorilla hand-reared for the first ten months of her life is now living with fellow primates full-time - just days before Christmas.

Afia, a Western lowland gorilla, was left on death's door after being born via emergency caesarean just under a year ago.

During her ten months being raised by keepers at Bristol Zoo, Afia was given more than 1,570 bottle feeds and wore nearly 1,400 nappies.

She was also given 112 piggy back rides, while staff spent countless sleepless nights caring for the young animal round the clock.

Now, having reached a huge milestone, Afia is no longer being cared for by keepers and spends 24-hours a day with her new gorilla family.

Afia now resides on Gorilla Island, spending much of her time with new surrogate mother Romina.

Lynsey Bugg, curator of mammals, said: "Since her birth in February, our team has worked tirelessly to hand-rear Afia 24/7 while being mindful to ensure human imprinting was kept to a minimum.

"Our ultimate goal has always been to reunite Afia with her gorilla family, so we all feel immensely proud and relieved to now see her where she belongs."

Zoo vet Rowena Killick described Afia's birth as an "extremely tense process".

Afia required assistance to breathe when she was first born, and was later treated for severe anaemia.

Her mother, Kera, almost died while delivering Afia.

At eight months old, Afia was strong enough to gradually begin meeting other members of the gorilla family.

Romina, one of the older females in the troop, had been identified as the surrogate mother for the baby and training had taken place before the introduction so that Romina would return Afia to keepers for bottle feeding several times a day.