GORILLAS LAND

ABOUT REMARKABLE GORILLAS

Along captive gorillas history, there have been some of them that highlighted between others due to their personality, peculiar characteristics or behaviors. From Gorillas Land, we wanted to do a tribute for all of them and that is the purpose of this section. Let us present you them:

• Copito de Nieve: also known as Snow Flake or Floquet de Neu, he was born in 1962 in the River of Muni (Guinea). This animal is, up to date, the only registered and known albino gorilla worldwide. He was captured by the ethnicity Fang, who called him Nfumu Ngui (which means for them white gorilla). They sold Copito de Nieve to professor Jordi Sabater Pi and he arrived to Zoológic de Barcelona in November 1966. He had 22 children, 7 grand-children and 3 great grand-children, but none of them showed any albino parts. He died on November 24th 2003 after suffering during five years from a skin cancer.

  

• Kifu: with a very special personality unusual in animals of his characteristics, Kifu is the only known silverback gorilla worldwide that allows his keepers to have direct phisical contact with himself and his full family including wives and children. He was born on March 25th 1987 to parents Founa and Kijo at Howletts Wild Animal Park, place where he had been living at during his full life and where he is the leader of one of the five family groups of the park, composed by five adult females and their children.

 

• Ambam the walking gorilla: he is a very well known gorilla because he often walks like humans. Son of Bitam and Shamba, he was born on  April 14th 1990 at Howletts Wild Animal Park, but he is living currently at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park. By chance or genetic, his father used to walk with two legs like Ambam too. At the moment, Ambam is part of one of the bachelor groups at Port Lympne, composed by five gorillas including himself.

  

• Colo: on December 22nd 1956, a baby gorilla named Colo, whose name is a combination of Columbus and Ohio, entered the world at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio (United States), becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Daughter of Millie Christina and Baron Macombo, Colo was hand reared and she turned her 56th birthdate in December 2012, which converts her in the oldest gorilla worldwide. On her long life, she got to have 3 children, 16 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren.

  

• Koko: born on July 4th 1971, Koko is able, according to her trainer Francine Patterson, to understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language and understand approximately 2,000 words of spoken English, which would place her among the most proficient non-human users of language. Koko's training began at the age of one. She was born at San Francisco Zoo to parents Jacqueline and Bwana. She is currently living at The Gorilla Fundation in Woodside since April 1980 together with the male Ndume.