Shinda

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 remaining across their African range. Shinda represents one of the captive-born females helping sustain the European breeding population of this critically endangered subspecies. Her parents, Sophie and Gorgo, produced her at Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands during autumn 2001.

Seven years passed before she left her birthplace for Safari Park Dvůr Králové in the Czech Republic. The move marked the beginning of an unusual pattern of transfers that would define her early life. She spent three years in the Czech facility before another relocation took her to Liberec Zoo, also in the Czech Republic.

Her time at Liberec proved brief — less than nine months before zoos arranged her final transfer to Moscow Zoological Gardens in summer 2012. She has remained in the Russian capital for over a decade now, making it her longest residence since leaving Burgers’ Zoo as a juvenile. At twenty-three years old, she has lived through multiple social groups and environments across four different countries.