Kwisha

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Kwisha represents one of the captive-born members of this critically endangered subspecies, daughter to parents Madge and Babec at Cincinnati Zoo in December 1992.

Her time in Ohio lasted less than nine months. At just eight months old, she made the move to Colorado in late summer 1993, beginning what would become a lifelong residency at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

More than thirty years have passed since that transfer. She has grown from infant to adult female within the same facility, making her one of the zoo’s most long-term great ape residents. Her subspecies, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, carries the IUCN’s most urgent conservation classification.

Captive populations like the one she belongs to help maintain genetic diversity for this critically endangered species. Each western lowland gorilla in managed care contributes to understanding and preserving what remains of their kind.