DENVER — A new troop of Western lowland gorillas will soon call the Denver Zoo home.
On Thursday morning, the zoo announced that the troop, which consists of three males, will arrive in the early spring. The males are all too old to stay with their family unit at another zoo. The trio will stay together until experts can help them find a family group of their own, the zoo said.
To accommodate this new troop, the Denver Zoo's current gorillas, Charlie, 23, and Curtis, 24, will move to the Kansas City Zoo in March.
"While we’ll miss Charlie and Curtis, we’re excited for their new adventure, and for our community to make connections with a new bachelor group and learn more about the species and how they can help," the zoo said.
The Denver Zoo often works with other Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited facilities to support Species Survival Plans, which are breeding programs to boost healthy, genetically diverse populations of threatened and endangered species. This means that zoos will often move animals to other zoos to pair them with new mates or better suit their needs, as is the case here, the zoo said.
Western gorillas are a critically endangered species, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
