Joy as baby bongo born at Belfast Zoo
I think this show is going to break me. It is just so stressful
Jumapili
CELEBRATIONS are in full swing in Belfast Zoo as a new eastern bongo was born this week.
The species is listed as critically endangered and there are estimated to be less than 80 left in the wild.
A Belfast Zoo spokesman said: “Our latest baby bongo is the first birth from our new couple Tombo and Surali, who were coupled up as a breeding pair just last year.
“Our new eastern bongo is a bouncing baby girl called Jumapili which is Swahili for born on Sunday.
“We had known Surali was pregnant for some time but couldn’t predict the date the birth would happen.
“It was a fantastic feeling seeing our new bongo baby bouncing about.”
DANCING With The Stars contestant Brian Dowling fears he will be overcome with emotion on tomorrow’s live show.
The 42-year old TV star admitted he only agreed to don the lycra and hit the dance floor in honour of his mother Rosaleen who died in 2018 from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.
Coupled with his husband Arthur Gourounlian returning to LA for work commitments, Brian said he’s at breaking point and feeling “vulnerable”.
He told the Irish Mirror: “My husband Arthur is a choreographer, he was great for giving me tips on how to add extra finesse.
“He was only ever going to be here for the first two live shows, he’s abandoned me now. Now that he’s gone there’s a bit of a vulnerability. I said to my dance partner Laura I think this show is going to break me.
“If I have a nervous breakdown it will be live on the telly on Sunday night.
“It’s just so stressful. Arthur has left, my family are in Kildare, I feel like I’m on my own.
“My mum passed in February 2018, of SADS, I was the last person to see her.
“She went to sleep and never woke, she was 61 – so young.” Rosaleen had been pleading with her eldest son of seven siblings to go on the show for years.
Brian said: “That’s probably why I’m doing
Dancing With The Stars, my mum always wanted me to do it. I was always asked, there was a real emotion attached to the show.
“I’d love to win and to stand there and dedicate it to my mother, she was my best friend.”
The former Big Brother winner and host still can’t accept how quickly Rosaleen was taken from him. He said: “I think it’s kind of a shock and I almost can’t get my head around the fact she’s not here with us because she was such a big part of our lives.
“She dedicated her life to her seven children. We were her life, she didn’t have a social life.
“Every day I tell myself to get up. I think of her first thing in the morning and last thing at night. My mother is the greatest love of my life since the time I was born.
“I asked her why she didn’t have any more children after she had my sister Tara, because she was only 35.
“She told me they were never blessed again, to say that after seven children is unbelievable.
“None of us were planned but she saw us all as blessings, it’s heartbreaking.
“It’s the truth and now I live my life in a truthful honest way, in a way I never lived it before.”
And since losing his mother, Brian said he has no time for “bulls**t” in his life.
He added: “I’m living my life for my mum. Sometimes people don’t like you living your life in an honest way, but life is super short.
“In the Christmas before she died I used to come out in a dressing
BRIAN DOWLING YESTERDAY