In an Instagram post from animalsatdisney, Bakari the gorilla was officially welcomed to his new home at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The gorilla enclosure was closed today, June 30, for his acclimation.

Bakari the Gorilla

Bakari is a male western lowland gorilla who has been added to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail family troop. This type of gorilla is critically endangered in the wild. Bakari is 21-years-old and was transferred from the Saint Louis Zoo.

His transfer was part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Western Lowland Gorilla Species Survival Plan, noted the Saint Louis Zoo on Facebook. He was born at the Brookfield Zoo in 2005.

Here is more of what the zoo’s post had to say about Bakari:

Bakari came to the Saint Louis Zoo in 2011 from Brookfield Zoo where he was born in 2005. He has been part of a bachelor gorilla troop at Jungle of the Apes since his arrival. This bachelor troop prepares adult males, also known as silverbacks, for the possibility of leading a family in the future. Gorilla bachelor troops are commonly found in the wild, including silverbacks and young adult males that live and travel together until they join a breeding group.

The Zoo has a long history supporting the AZA’s Western Lowland Gorilla SSP. The Saint Louis Zoo was the first AZA-accredited zoo and the first North American zoo to form a bachelor troop for this species, as well as the first to successfully integrate two bachelor troops.

Although western lowland gorillas are the most common of the four-gorilla subspecies, they are critically endangered and facing the threat of complete extinction in the wild. The Saint Louis Zoo supports western lowland gorillas through the AZA SSP and the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute Center for the Conservation of Congo Apes.

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