Sia (Barbara)

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Born at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo on March 21, 2006, Sia carries the genes of two important breeding animals in the managed population. Her mother Halima and father Fubo produced a daughter who would grow up entirely within the Bronx Zoo’s gorilla troop.

Captive breeding programs for critically endangered species like Gorilla gorilla gorilla depend on careful genetic management across zoos worldwide. Sia represents nearly two decades of life within one facility, where keepers have watched her develop from infant to adult female. She has never known any home other than the Bronx Zoo.

Now approaching her eighteenth year, she remains part of the same institution where her parents brought her into the world. Her subspecies carries the IUCN’s most urgent conservation classification: Critically Endangered. Every gorilla born in managed care contributes to the genetic diversity needed for long-term species survival.