Calgary Zoo adds 5th female gorilla to troop

David Bell · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 02, 2025 4:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: 12 hours ago

The pistillate colonisation of occidental lowland gorillas astatine the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo conscionable grew by one, with the summation of 24-year-old Johari, who arrived from Toronto past Friday.

The transportation is months successful the readying stages and there's tons of reciprocity.

"We spent immoderate clip getting to cognize her," carnal attraction manager Colleen Baird told reporters Wednesday.

"We sent a caregiver of ours implicit to Toronto to commencement to get to cognize her there. We besides person a Toronto caregiver present truthful we tin modulation and get to cognize her adjacent better."

Zoos and conservation facilities astir the satellite are moving together.

"It's truly exciting. We enactment done a precise semipermanent program with our gorilla genetics and our unit successful general, colonisation globally," she explained.

"This has been successful the works for immoderate time. We are ever looking astatine what the unit dynamic looks similar implicit time."

Including Johari, the zoo present has a unit of 5 females and 2 males, including silverback Jasiri.

"They volition hopefully person immoderate offspring arsenic good arsenic different troops successful our collection," Baird said.

That's important due to the fact that the planetary colonisation faces immense challenges.

"They are critically endangered," she added. "We person them present truthful we tin speech astir what's going connected globally retired determination and however they each necktie together."

Johari is simply a spot older than a batch of gorilla mothers and she hasn't had immoderate offspring truthful far, but experts are excited astir a imaginable transportation with Jasiri.

"We were capable to say, we are acceptable for her. Let's bring her in. Jasiri is simply a large lucifer truthful let's bring them unneurotic to person that offspring and springiness her the quality to person an offspring, which she hasn't had yet."

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Having a kid tin alteration a female's presumption successful the troop.

"Sometimes they don't conceive close away, sometimes the familial lucifer conscionable isn't there," Baird said.

"She is astatine a constituent successful her beingness wherever we are acceptable to bash it. She's healthy, determination should beryllium nary crushed wherefore she can't beryllium successful."

Johari arrived successful Calgary connected June 27, truthful the adjacent 2 weeks volition beryllium astir looking for the champion clip to present her.

As portion of the familial diverseness program, immoderate offspring would apt beryllium sent to different facility.