Hard to Say Goodbye

Bright sun and bold shadows reach across the rocky terrain of the Fort Worth Zoo’s gorilla habitat as the troop begins their day. The harsh lighting chisels their deep-set, expressive eyes and muscular frames, as if carving the powerful primates to life. The scene seems to echo a growing contrast within the troop’s dynamics — an inevitable change that could be as harsh as it is heartbreaking.

Today, however, is just another day. Bright greens and carrots are scattered across the habitat ground for the gorillas’ morning meal. Elmo, the veteran silverback and leader of the zoo’s western lowland troop, sits on his favorite rock slab, calmly surveying his domain. Elmo’s rich brown eyes glint in the sunlight as he slowly turns his massive head from side to side.

Nearby, the focus of the troop’s impending shift is already in motion.

Gus, a playful, chest-thumping 10-year-old, is revving up for his latest round of mischief-making. He gently bops his little brother Bruno on the head, a move that sends the much smaller gorilla into somersaults of joy.

Ever the showman, Gus recruits his close companion, Bukavu, to assist in an epic tag-team game. The two gorillas then circle around Elmo, encouraging the patriarch to play.

Underneath the playful antics, a more serious side of Gus is emerging. He’s becoming a silverback, an adult male gorilla.

Gus is showing unmistakable signs of becoming a mature adult, said Linda Roberts, supervisor of the World of Primates and a 35-year veteran of the Fort Worth Zoo.

He has well-rehearsed the powerful gorilla stance to express when he’s upset. He makes deep, rumbling sounds. Gus also “calls” — a specific vocalization — when he wants you to come back, Roberts said.

“All these are things that adult males do,” Roberts said, “so he’s at that real in-between stage.”

Gus is changing physically, as well. He’s packing on muscle, and a soft silver-gray outline is becoming noticeable across his back, edging him closer to silverback status.

These subtle changes carry weight because in the wild, there is room for only one silverback to lead a troop. Gorillas typically live in families with a dominant silverback who supervises and protects several females and their young. The same is true for gorillas in zoos.

As Gus continues to grow, he could one day challenge Elmo, the father who has watched over him throughout his life and comforted him when he cried as an infant. Elmo and Gus’ daily routine still includes playing, but even their play is taking on a deeper meaning.

“He and Elmo, they do great,” Roberts said. “They play. They have a good time. You hear them ‘laughing.’ They’re rolling around, and they’re wrestling. But it’s not entirely play. It’s a precursor. It’s testing.”

One day, the play might turn a little too rough, Roberts said. And that could spark a standoff or worse, a fight.

Elmo, now 36 years old, still barrels around the huge outdoor habitat with stunning power and speed. As the leader of the six-member gorilla troop, the musclebound 400-pound silverback may not easily surrender his throne.

“For now, everything’s wonderful, but we’re aware that eventually, one day, it won’t be like that,” Roberts said.

As a result, zoo staff are closely watching for signs of a power struggle. Before that happens, Gus may be moved to another facility, with a group of other male gorillas close to his age. The setting is known as a “bachelor group” (of gorillas). Bukavu, who is 7, may join Gus in the move, Roberts said.

A bachelor group gives maturing young gorillas the chance to develop skills needed to live with other adult gorillas. Among those skills are creating friendships through play, learning to negotiate power, avoiding conflict, and expressing dominance, said Kristen Lukas, Ph.D., director of conservation and science for Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and chair of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Gorilla Species Survival Plan (SSP).

“I have 20-plus years of experience studying bachelor group dynamics and leading teams that skillfully form and manage bachelor groups in zoos,” Lukas said. “I can say, without a doubt, that male gorillas in bachelor groups can form long-term bonds with one another and benefit greatly from being managed socially during their formative years.”

Roberts has already seen a tense silverback dynamic before. And so has Elmo.

In 1993, Elmo was 3 years old and living with an adult male named Kambula. Like Elmo, Kambula was “a laidback gorilla,” Roberts said.

When Elmo was 13 going on 14, he started having standoffs with Kambula.

“One day, they were squaring off in that yard,” Roberts recalled. “Neither one would run and turn their back on the other to go inside, and I called a curator that was here at the time. I said to him, ‘So, do we separate them now, or do we wait until we have to stitch somebody up?’ ”

Eventually, Kambula refused to go outside if Elmo was present.

The zoo said staff decided the two gorillas could no longer be together for safety’s sake.

Permanent separations and goodbyes of any kind are difficult for staff, as well as zoo members and visitors who connect with the animals by watching them. Still, changes and losses are inevitable.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Roberts said, “and when you come into this business, if you don’t know it before you start, you’ll learn it rather quickly.”

One example is Jameela, a baby female gorilla born at the zoo on January 5, 2024.

A team of zoo staff and human medical experts performed an emergency cesarean on Sekani, who developed a serious blood pressure condition while carrying the baby gorilla.

Sekani did not accept the baby gorilla, named Jameela. Other female troop members also rejected the infant, despite around-the-clock efforts by zoo staff. In March 2024, Jameela was moved to the Cleveland Metropark Zoo, where she was successfully integrated into the western lowland gorilla troop.

“We were heartbroken,” Roberts said. “It felt like a failure to us because we couldn’t get our girls to take her, but you can’t make them take the baby.”

When Jameela’s move to Cleveland was announced, the community responded to the Fort Worth Zoo’s World of Primates staff with an outpouring of support, cards, and gifts. Hundreds of visitors also came by to see Jameela one last time after the zoo announced her departure.

In a different way, Gus’ birth on December 5, 2015, also marked a time of uncertainty. No one knew how Elmo and the rest of the troop at the time would respond.

“We were all nervous, because they never saw a baby, and we were wondering what Elmo was going to do,” Roberts said. “But Elmo was beautiful.”

He stayed close to Gus’ mom, Gracie, and every time Gus cried, Elmo would make a comforting, rumbling sound, Roberts said.

The bond between the gorillas is felt by visitors, too — especially those who show up year after year, camera in hand.

“I have been watching Gus since he was 5 days old,” said local photographer Sharon Martin. “He was my first western lowland gorilla baby to photograph. I loved him from that first moment and have loved watching him with all his milestones.”

Gus’ interactions with the rest of the troop, especially Winifred (one of the female gorillas), and his joy and fascination with simple things like a stick or a rock have been fun to watch over the years, Martin said.

“Watching him grow and become a big brother to Bruno and a buddy and cousin to Bukavu — every moment has been special,” Martin said. “It does make me sad to think someday he’ll leave the zoo, and I won’t see him on my visits.”

Aside from the joy the animals bring to others, they play an important role in conservation and education.

One goal is to spark an interest for future scientists, veterinarians, animal care specialists, keepers, conservationists, and others, said zoo spokesperson Avery Elander. “It’s building that connection, fostering that appreciation. Through the breeding program with our gorillas or any of the other animals, the zoo also is keeping a genetically diverse, healthy population of animals alive for future generations.”

In the wild, western lowland gorillas are critically endangered, based on the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). That means the animals face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

Populations have plummeted due to commercial hunting for bushmeat, diseases, and habitat loss through logging, farming, and expanding human settlements, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Nearly 80% of western lowland gorillas live in unprotected areas, making them vulnerable to poachers, who primarily hunt gorillas for their meat, said Bas Huijbregts, the World Wildlife Fund-U.S.’s African species conservation director.

The exact number of western lowland gorillas is not known, as their dense rainforest homes make them difficult to count, Huijbregts said.

Disease is another threat to their survival. In the early 2000s, Ebola “caused more than a 90% mortality rate, which resulted in the western lowland gorilla becoming a critically endangered species,” Huijbregts said.

To help protect them, WWF and its partners have created successful conservation efforts by working with logging companies to protect apes from poachers, minimize disease transmissions, and improve land-use planning to help protect their habitats, Huijbregts said.

Later at the zoo, in an afternoon of sunny, unseasonably warm winter weather, Gus showed perhaps another sign of growing up. Striking a dignified pose, he took a seat on Elmo’s favorite rock slab and watched the rest of the troop.

For a moment, Gus looked a little less like a prankster and a lot more like a young silverback.

“It’s sad, but you do the best you can while you have them,” Roberts said. “We know we’re not going to keep them forever.”