Zsazsa

Western lowland gorillas face extinction in the wild, with fewer than 100,000 remaining across their African range. Zsazsa was born into this critically endangered subspecies at Münchener Tierpark Hellabrunn in December 1986, the daughter of Wilma and Roututu.

Her early years were spent at her birth zoo until she moved to Frankfurt Zoo as a young gorilla in 1991. There she lived for nearly fourteen years, growing from adolescence into full adulthood within the Frankfurt troop.

In 2005, she transferred to Zoo Heidelberg, where she would spend the final fifteen years of her life. She died there in April 2020 from intestinal dislocation, having lived across three decades and three German institutions.

Her subspecies, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, remains listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Every gorilla in managed care contributes to understanding these great apes and their conservation needs in an increasingly threatened world.