Mamitu

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Mamitu was born into this critically endangered subspecies at Stuttgart’s Wilhelma Zoo in December 1977, the son of Mimi and Banjo.

As a young gorilla, he made the move to Zoo Zürich in late 1979, where he would spend the vast majority of his life. The transfer happened when he was not yet two years old, still dependent on his mother’s care and guidance within the troop structure.

Over the decades that followed, he became a fixture of Zürich’s gorilla program. Captive-born males like him represent crucial genetic diversity for managed populations of this subspecies, which the IUCN lists as Critically Endangered.

He lived at Zoo Zürich for nearly forty years before his death in February 2019. His long life span reflected the care possible in managed settings, though wild gorillas face mounting pressures from habitat loss and human encroachment across central and western Africa.