Yangu

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 left across their African range. Yangu was born into this critically endangered subspecies at Zoologisch-botanischer Garten Wilhelma on 24 May 1983, the son of Mimi and Banjo.

His early years were spent at Wilhelma until October 1986, when he moved to Zoologischer Garten Wuppertal as a young gorilla. There he lived for over a decade, growing from juvenile to adult male. The longest chapter of his life began in April 1997 with his transfer to ZooParc de Beauval in France.

At Beauval, he spent more than twenty years as part of the zoo’s gorilla group. His life spanned nearly 35 years across three countries, making him a long-lived representative of his subspecies in European zoos. He died at Beauval on 18 January 2018, having lived through significant changes in gorilla conservation and zoo management practices.