Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Written by Stephanie Payne, gorilla keeper Note from the Editor: It’s time for an update on Woodland Park Zoo’s gorilla family. Beginning on Tuesday, April 23, our eight western lowland gorillas will be off public view for a few weeks to accommodate some improvements to their exhibit areas. While you might not be able to see them from the public viewing areas, a lot has been going on behind the scenes. Animal keeper Stephanie Payne brings us up to speed on relationship dynamics within the group and what the future might hold for them. Uzumma enjoys a snack while surveying the view from above. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Spring is in the air for the gorillas! Whether it’s seeing Vip lying in the sun, Akenji tearing apart the barberry in order to get to their blooms, or Uzumma enjoying the view from the highest perches of the climbing structures in her habitat, it is clear that we’re all enjoying the warmer te

Written by Stephanie Payne-Jacobs, gorilla keeper Note from the Editor: We told you earlier about Kwame , a ninteen-year-old male western lowland gorilla who came to Woodland Park Zoo from Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. just last month. That story picks up here in the words of Stephanie Payne-Jacobs, one of our dedicated gorilla keepers. She reminds us of why Kwame was chosen to be the new silverback for a group of our females and then takes us through their first days of forming a family.  Kwame, pictured at his former home, Smithsonian's National Zoo/Photo: Skip Brown Beginnings Our search for a new silverback, the adult male leader of a gorilla family, began just weeks after Leo’s passing in March 2018. While still processing the loss of sweet Leo, we knew we had to begin the search in order to bring a sense of normality back to the lives of the females Leo had left behind. These females, 22-year-old Nadiri, 17-year-old Akenji, Uzumma, who is