Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher with Stephanie Jacobs Uzumma, who is pregnant with her first baby due next spring, is doing really well! Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo We recently announced that Uzumma, our 12-year-old western lowland gorilla, is expecting her first baby next March. The father is 20-year-old Kwame and this baby will be their first offspring together. Kwame arrived at Woodland Park Zoo in 2018 following the unexpected death of Leonel . The absence of a silverback (a male leader and protector) can be very destabilizing for a gorilla family, but Kwame’s confident leadership has unified the whole family group over this last year—enabling Uzumma and her whole troop to be ready for this exciting new chapter. We chatted with animal keeper Stephanie Jacobs to find out how our gorilla team prepares for a gorilla pregnancy and why they think Uzumma has what it takes to be a great first-time mother. Kwame—silverback of the family, and father of Uzumma&#

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications We've got some very lovely news to share, Uzumma, a western lowland gorilla is pregnant for the first time! The expectant father is 18-year-old Kwame. Uzumma in her favorite treetop spot. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Uzumma, who turns 12 in October, has just ended the first trimester of her pregnancy and is due to give birth in March 2020. The gestation period for gorillas is eight to nine months, similar to humans. The last birth of a gorilla at Woodland Park Zoo was Yola, a female gorilla born in November 2015. Woodland Park Zoo is renowned for its successful gorilla breeding program and its excellent birth management plans , including pre- and post-natal care. To help ensure a successful pregnancy and birth, the pre-natal care includes regular veterinary check-ups leading up to the birth, a diet created by a nutritionist, supplemental vitamins to help Uzumma maintain a healthy weight for a normal delivery

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Male gorilla, Kwame, will become new leader of gorilla family group We are very excited to welcome a new gorilla to Woodland Park Zoo this September: a male named Kwame (KWA-may) who will be coming from Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Kwame is 18 years old—right in the age range when males typically assume the role of silverback, which is the head of a gorilla family group. Keepers at  Smithsonian’s National Zoo think  Kwame is one of the most handsome silverbacks they've ever seen. We are inclined to agree. Photo credit: Skip Brown/Smithsonian’s National Zoo Silverbacks, which are so named because of the silvery hairs that grow in when an adolescent male comes of age, play a critical role in gorilla families. They protect, they lead and they maintain peace in the group. It’s not natural for an established gorilla family to live without a silverback. The Gorilla Species Survival Plan, one of many conservation pro

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Leo, with Yola and Nadiri in the background, 2016 photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo. Update on Leo’s passing We’d like to share preliminary necropsy (animal autopsy) findings with you regarding our 40-year-old male gorilla, Leo, who passed away on the evening of March 29 after a brief illness. The most significant post-mortem findings indicate the upper middle-age gorilla died from an aortic aneurysm—the internal rupture of the wall of the ascending aorta, the major artery exiting the heart. “The aortic dissection was extensive, extending into the descending aorta, down as far as the lower back region of Leo,” says Dr. Darin Collins, Woodland Park Zoo’s director of animal health. Heart disease emerged as a disease of concern and a major cause of death among all four great apes (gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos) in the early 1990s. In 1991, Woodland Park Zoo lost a male gorilla in his ‘20s due t

Posted by: Gigi Allianic Leo, a 40-year-old male gorilla, passed away suddenly on March 29, 2018 after a brief illness. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Leonel, a male gorilla fondly called Leo, passed away last night at age 40 after a brief illness. The upper middle-age gorilla had been under a 24-hour care this week. He died in his off-view sleeping den. On Monday, the 360-pound gorilla had no interest in food or drink, and did not want to leave his den to go outdoors. The zoo’s animal health team did a visual assessment and a 24-hour treatment plan that included medications, hydration, hand feeding and observation. Plans to anesthetize him yesterday for a diagnostic exam were canceled because Leo had shown significant signs of improvement. “Leo drank and ate a lot and urinated, a positive sign of hydration. Also, his activity levels increased and we even observed play behavior, so we believed he was on the mend,” said Nancy Hawkes, PhD, Woodland Park Zoo’s director of

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications World Gorilla Day asks people from all over the world to celebrate these amazing animals and take action to protect endangered gorillas in the wild and save their ever-shrinking natural habitat. Yola has captured our hearts, but her wild cousins need even more. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo. The largest of the primates, gorillas are often the first great ape that we are introduced to as young children. Their intelligence, gentle nature and magnificent strength make them both awe-inspiring and familiar. They are also the most closely related primate to humans, after bonobos and chimpanzees.  Every day, we see zoo guests, members, keepers and volunteers alike, standing in awe of playful Akenji, peaceful Pete or curious little Yola.  Their presence is inspiring. It is easy to love them, but on World Gorilla Day we ask you to act on behalf of this critically endangered species. Yola and Nadiri enjoy the spring b

Posted by: Milou Groenenberg, Mbeli Bai Gorilla Study, a Woodland Park Zoo Wildlife Survival Fund project At Mbeli, we follow the interesting lives of many different gorillas. One of our most fascinating stories is that of George’s group. George was already an adult silverback when the Mbeli Bai Study started in 1995. He acquired his first females in 1998, and became a successful harem holder, siring a total of 19 offspring. One of the females in his group, Leah, became famous worldwide for the first observation of tool-use by wild gorillas. From 2004 onward, George’s group slowly started to reduce in size as he lost female after female. From 2012 onward, George started to mingle with another group: Morpheus’s. Morpheus (back), George (front) and Jockey (center, offspring of Morpheus) are tolerating each other in close proximity as their groups are mingling in the bai. This occurred regularly in the period between 2012 and 2016, until George was last seen. Photo courtesy Marie Ma

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo Their patients are usually human. But a team of local medical specialists joined Woodland Park Zoo's animal health team last month to perform emergency umbilical hernia surgery repair on 38-year-old gorilla Vip. The all-star team re-convened with our veterinary team over the weekend to examine silverback Vip’s surgical site and perform dental and sinus procedures. The good news: Vip is doing great! “Thanks to the expertise of the medical team, Vip successfully pulled through both the surgery and follow-up examination and is back with his family as he recovers,” said Dr. Darin Collins, Woodland Park Zoo’s director of animal health. “The elderly gorilla remains under close observation by his attentive caretakers and we’ll continue to keep him on a prescribed program of analgesics and joint medication.” Prior to the surgery, keepers had reported the 430-pound western lowland gorilla had sho

Posted by Stephanie Payne-Jacobs, gorilla keeper EDITOR'S NOTE: Adult male gorillas are known as silverbacks because of the striking silver hair that grows across their back all the way down to their hips. This is not only a mark of maturity (silver hairs appear around 12 years-old), but a sign that one might be strong and determined enough to protect his troop. In most gorilla troops, the silverback is the center of attention. He is responsible for guarding the troop against outsiders, finding choice feeding sites and playing mediator between the other gorillas in the group. While silver hairs, larger canines and handsome red crowns (in Western lowland gorillas) are all visual characteristics of a mighty silverback, it is the personality and behavior of these males that determine if they will lead. This is the story of how one such silverback, Leonel, has come into his own as a protector, leader and peacekeeper — in part with a little help from a tiny, adorable baby called Yo