N’gagi, one of the two mountain gorillas living together in friendly companionship. N’gagi is about 15 years old and weights 580 pounds. He and his cage companion Mbongo were captured by the late Martin Johnson and were purchased for the San Diego Zoo by the late Miss Ellen Scripps and her nephew, the late Robert P. Scripps. |
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
SD Zoo #3
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2 comments:
I believe the two gorillas were actually eastern lowland gorillas. Several gorillas in U.S. zoos were claimed to be mountian gorillas but were eastern lowland, different subspecies of Gorilla beringei. (Now I'm really stretching and will go by Richard Reynolds' word.) The only mountian gorilla in the U.S. was a young female on the Ringling show in the late 1930s.
Regardless, these two gorillas were worth a million dollars in publicity. Just like Chicago's Bushman, St. Louis' Phil, and the Ringling's Gargantua. A little dubious taxonomy, no big deal.
The last time I was in Balboa Park they still had a great collection of gorillas.
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