Digit

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Digit represents hope for this critically endangered subspecies through managed breeding programs in European zoos. Born to parents Pamela and Tam-Tam on an autumn day in 1998, she entered the world at Espace Zoologique St. Martin La Plaine.

Captive-born gorillas like Digit help maintain genetic diversity within zoo populations of Gorilla gorilla gorilla. She has spent her entire life at the French facility where she was born. Now in her mid-twenties, she has lived through more than two decades of conservation efforts for her species.

Her subspecies carries the IUCN’s most urgent classification: Critically Endangered. Habitat loss and hunting pressure continue to threaten wild populations across Central and West Africa, making every gorilla in managed care valuable for the species’ future.