Kira

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 remaining across their African range. Kira represents one of the captive-born members of her critically endangered subspecies, born at Zoo Krefeld to parents Tumba and Massa in September 1995.

She spent her first eleven years in Germany, growing from infant to juvenile within her natal group. The transfer to Moscow Zoological Gardens in August 2006 marked a significant transition in her life, moving her from the German zoo system to Russia when she was nearly eleven years old.

Now approaching three decades of life, she has spent the majority of her years at Moscow Zoo. Her subspecies, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, carries the IUCN’s most urgent conservation classification of Critically Endangered, making each captive-born gorilla an important part of the species’ future.