Disney's Animal Kingdom has a new face — and a pretty impressive one at that. Bakari, a 21-year-old western lowland gorilla, has joined the park's family troop and taken on the role of dominant silverback. Guests can now spot him along the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail in the Africa section of the park.
Bakari was born in 2005 at Brookfield Zoo before moving to the Saint Louis Zoo in 2011, where he lived in a bachelor troop at the Jungle of the Apes habitat. Bachelor troops — groups of adult and young males — give silverbacks the opportunity to develop the social and leadership skills they'll eventually need to head a family group, mirroring a pattern also seen among wild gorillas.
His move to Animal Kingdom came through a recommendation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Western Lowland Gorilla Species Survival Plan, a cooperative program designed to support healthy, genetically diverse populations of the species across accredited institutions. The Saint Louis Zoo noted that the transfer gives Bakari the chance to lead his own family group and contribute to conservation of the broader western lowland gorilla population.
Western lowland gorillas are the most common of the four gorilla subspecies, but the species remains critically endangered and faces real extinction pressure in the wild. The Saint Louis Zoo continues to support the subspecies through the AZA program and its WildCare Institute Center for the Conservation of Congo Apes.
This story was originally reported by WDWMAGIC.
