A young gorilla from a zoo in France has been sent to Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Chosen for his calm nature and his superb genes – it is hoped that love will blossom between Kibali the French gorilla lover and the gorilla girls of Taronga. He’s currently living with just one lady, Kimya a seven year old and they seem to get along just fine.
Kibali is an adolescent at the moment and his fur is black but he will grow into a magnificent silverback in years to come and will hopefully make a good leader for his group to be.
The population of western lowland gorillas in the wild has been in decline for many years, it is estimated that there are less than 100,000 world wide, and so the zoo hopes that Kibali will do his bit to help keep the numbers up. Kibali was born at the La Vallee des Singes (Monkey Valley) in Romagne, Vienne.
The arrival of Kibali at the Australian Zoo is in keeping with their European partner programme – the original troupe of gorillas at Taronga came from Holland.
