Jabari

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. The IUCN lists Gorilla gorilla gorilla as Critically Endangered, making every captive-born member of the subspecies valuable for conservation efforts.

Hope and Gino welcomed their son at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on November 4, 1997. He spent his first decade in Florida, growing from infant to juvenile within the park’s gorilla habitat. At nearly ten years old, he made the cross-country move to California.

Since September 2007, he has called the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens home. The transfer brought him to a new troop structure and different keepers who have watched him mature into adulthood. Now over 25 years old, he represents more than a quarter-century of gorilla conservation work in managed care.

His life span bridges significant changes in how zoos approach great ape care and breeding programs. Born in the late 1990s, he has lived through evolving standards for gorilla habitats and social groupings that better reflect wild behavior patterns.