L.A.’s Gorillas Come Home

$19-Million Campo Gorilla Reserve Is Final Phase of Zoo’s Great Ape Project

A thick mist wafted up from the ground, shrouding the space around me in a milky-white cloud. Peering through the fog, I suddenly saw it–a black shape moving silently through the gloom. As if on cue, the creature cupped its hands and beat its chest, creating a hollow sound that reverberated through the trees. The scene was reminiscent of an African rainforest, but actually it was in the heart of the urban jungle we call Los Angeles. I was among the privileged few media members invited to attend the November 8 unveiling of the $19-million Campo Gorilla Reserve at the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park–and welcome our fellow primates back after spending four-and-a-half years at the Denver Zoo while their home was being remodeled. “Right now is an extremely critical time for gorillas in the wild as they face the challenge of habitat destruction and being hunted in the bushmeat trade,” Zoo Director John Lewis said. “It is our hope that this reserve will educate our visitors as to why gorillas are endangered and what we can do to help them.” After walking along a path hidden on either side by shrubs and trees, intended to help “muffle” outside noises, I soon encountered what we had all come to see. First to greet guests to his new real estate was Kelly, a 20-year-old silverback in charge of the family group. Holding a branch in his mouth, he knuckle-walked to the front of the habitat and surveyed his surroundings. Rubbing his brow, he seemed satisfied. Moments later, a 23-year-old female named Rapunzel strolled into view, her and Kelly’s two-year-old daughter Glenda clinging to her back. Mother and baby plopped down under a tree near a pool of water and watched as “Auntie” Evelyn, the true superstar of the group, plucked a handful of leaves from a bush an arm’s length away. Evelyn, 31, was the second gorilla ever born at the L.A. Zoo since it opened its gates in 1966. Charismatic and intelligent, she took up painting during her stay at the Denver Zoo and has since created several works of art. Joining Lewis at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge, Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association President Connie Morgan and actress Betty White, ambassador to animals for the City of Los Angeles and longtime zoo supporter, who monitored the gorilla family’s progress during their relocation. “I want to thank all of the folks in Denver who took such good care of our kids while we were building their new home,” she said. “We were hoping Kelly and Rapunzel would have a baby here but they never did. I don’t know if it was the music, the altitude or what, but within a few weeks of moving to Denver Rapunzel got pregnant.” The 1 1/2-acre exhibit was designed to closely resemble the great ape’s native environment in West Central Africa. Full of trees, brush, flowers, thistles, waterfalls, pools, rocky ledges for climbing, a sunny grass area and a dark shady retreat, it features a mist machine (on a timer set to go off at specified times of the day) that also serves as a cooling system in the summer. There are three viewing stations to this main “common” area–two open-air and another behind a glass wall, at eye-level with the apes. As impressive as the state-of-the-art habitat looked, however, its wonder paled in comparison to that of its inhabitants, who “hammed it up” for their first public appearance. In particularly good spirits was Glenda, who playfully clapped her hands at the sound of clicking cameras and made her audience laugh by tickling her mother’s toes with a slender reed, and then scampering away. Walking further up the path, I happened upon what Ashley Fragomeni of the zoo’s education department humorously described as the “bachelor pad,” a separate enclosure that houses 13-year-old Hasani and his 10-year-old brother Jabari, both of whom previously resided at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. Hasani means “handsome” in Swahili and one look at him is enough to know he will soon mature into a magnificent silverback. He chose to spend the morning at Campo’s built-in salad bar, gobbling down celery-like bamboo stalks, juicy pomegranates and succulant ficus plants. Also befitting his name, Jabari (meaning fearless”) is an outgoing and curious teen who is not above an act of mischief at his brother’s expense. There are no immediate plans to find mates for the bachelors, who are kept apart from the family group so they can’t challenge Kelly’s dominance. Like the adjacent family room, the bachelor pad has an abundance of eats and treats for its inhabitants, who can be seen from two vantage points: behind glass at ground level or across a ravine from above. Lining the top of the exhibit are low-voltage electrical wires, partially disguised as foliage, to deter escapes like the one that occurred at the Dallas Zoo’s “Wilds of Africa” exhibit in 2004, when a 340-pound male gorilla (also named Jabari) injured four people before being shot and killed by police. The Dallas exhibit was equipped with electric wiring (giving a mild shock when touched) but after a three-month investigation zoo officials determined the gorilla had used a running start to jump across a 12-foot wide trench, clearing a wall and the wire atop it. The exhibit was rebuilt with higher walls and boulders were strategically placed to prevent “running jumps.” Campo Gorilla Reserve is the final phase of the L.A. Zoo’s Great Ape Forest, joining the “Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains” exhibit (opened in 1998) and the orangutans’ “Red Ape Rain Forest” (opened in 2000), both located nearby. Like all zoo gorillas, the six here are western lowlands, a critically endangered species that lives in lowlands and swamp forests of subtropical and tropical Africa in the countries of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola (Cabinda). Recently, an increase in illegal poaching and diseases such as ebola are estimated to have caused a 60 percent decline in the lowland gorilla’s population over the last 20 to 25 years. Awareness of the gorillas’ plight is the first step towards protecting them in the wild. “I’m passionate about animal conservation and exhibits like this because it shows in a nutshell what’s going on the wild,” said L.A. Zoo Marketing Manager Kim Spence, a Pacific Palisades resident. “What makes gorillas so intriguing is that they’re so much like us.”