Toni

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across Central Africa. Toni was born into this critically endangered subspecies at Tiergarten der Stadt Nürnberg in August 1974, the offspring of Delphi and Fritz. His early years were spent in Germany before beginning a series of moves that would take him across Europe.

At just under two years old, he transferred to Zoo Hannover, where he would spend the longest stretch of his life — over seventeen years. During this period, he matured from a young gorilla into an adult male, developing the characteristic silver-backed coat that marks dominant males of his species.

After leaving Hannover in 1993, he moved to Zoologischer Garten Saarbrücken for six years before making his final transfer to Kyiv Zoological Park in 1999. He has now lived in Ukraine for more than two decades, making it his second-longest residence. At nearly fifty years old, he represents one of the older members of his subspecies in managed care.

Captive breeding programs like the one that produced Toni help maintain genetic diversity for western lowland gorillas. His subspecies, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, continues to decline in the wild due to habitat loss, disease, and hunting pressure across their native range in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo.