Tuti

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Tuti represents one of the captive-born members of this critically endangered subspecies, hatched into the world at the Bronx Zoo on a summer day in July 1994. Her parents, Tunko and Timmy, were part of the zoo’s established breeding program.

Raised within the Wildlife Conservation Society’s gorilla troop, she has spent nearly three decades as part of the same group. Captive breeding programs like the one that produced her help maintain genetic diversity for potential future conservation efforts.

Now approaching her fourth decade, Tuti has lived her entire life at the facility where she was born. The IUCN lists her subspecies, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, as Critically Endangered due to habitat loss, disease, and hunting pressure across central and western Africa.