Djimu

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Born to mother Juma and father Kijo on the last day of 1992, Djimu entered the world at Howletts Wild Animal Park as part of the European breeding programme for this critically endangered subspecies.

His early years unfolded at Howletts, where he spent the first five and a half years of his life developing under his mother’s care. The transition to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park came in June 1998, when he was still a juvenile learning the complex social dynamics that define gorilla troops.

More than two decades have passed since that move. He has grown from a dependent youngster into a mature male, witnessing the careful management that zoos employ to maintain genetic diversity in captive populations. His subspecies, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, carries the IUCN’s most urgent conservation classification.

At over thirty years old, he represents three decades of conservation efforts aimed at preserving his species. The studbook records that track his lineage form part of a broader network designed to safeguard western lowland gorillas for future generations.