Last updated on December 8, 2024
The Franklin Park Zoo announced on Dec. 5 that after a rapid decline in health, Kitombe, the mighty western lowland gorilla, was euthanized after numerous health issues that were affecting his quality of life. He was 38.
Kitombe was an impressive silverback who I met face-to-face, about 15 or so years ago. At the time, I was volunteering every Friday morning at the Franklin Park Zoo.
Volunteers were not allowed to work with the gorillas because we were too close in relations and could pass along our illnesses (that’s what I was told). I volunteered in the Hooves and Horns section feeding and cleaning up after Christopher the Lion (RIP), the giraffe couple Beau and Jana (RIP to both), and their young calf, as well as the camels and several other animals.
But I really wanted to be close to the gorillas. Every opportunity I got, I would visit the gorillas in their own indoor forest with other zoo visitors. This was after Little Joe the Gorilla, who still resides at the zoo, and still not little, had broken out of the out gorilla exhibit and made his way down Blue Hill Avenue in 2003. This is true, look it up.
At the time I volunteered there were three silverbacks — Okie and Little Joe, and Kitombe. Okie moved to Louisiana’s Audubon Zoo in 2017. At the time, Okie and Little Joe would go on the exhibit at the same time, sometimes with the female gorillas. But Kitombe was never with Little Joe and Okie, because it was believed they couldn’t coexist. I don’t know if they had lived together and had a disagreement, or if it were just assumed they couldn’t live together because that manmade indoor forest wasn’t big enough for the three of them.
One year on my birthday I went to the zoo to sit and hang out with the gorillas in the exhibit. It was always fascinating when I did this because it would be in the cold winter so there weren’t a lot of visitors, so I got some unique time with the gorillas with glass between us. But the gorillas would always come over to me and sit at the glass by me. They’d look at me, I’d look at them, enjoying each other’s company? On this particular birthday I was speaking to an animal keeper and I said I loved the gorillas. She asked if I’d like to meet them close up. Yes, please!
I was given a mask, I washed my hands as asked, covered my shoes to not drag in any possible dangerous germs on my feet, and then went to meet the gorillas. I met Kitombe face-to-face. The only thing separating us was very strong metal bars. We were only a few feet away from each other. He just stared at me and I don’t recall him breaking eye contact the entire time. I broke eye contact because I didn’t want him to think I was challenging him.
The keeper told me that of the three males, they each had their own distinct personality.
Little Joe was a people pleaser. He is quite smart for a gorilla. Before he escaped and was in the old enclosure that they had to renovate, people accidentally dropped glasses and what have you into the enclosure. He was known to pick things up that fell into his enclosure, and sometimes fix them (!!), and put them right by the door where he knew keepers would come and get them, and then step away because he knew the keepers wouldn’t open the door if he were standing right there.
Okie kind of wanted to be a people pleaser and sometimes not. It depended upon the day.
Kitombe knew he was a silverback. He knew he was a big gorilla, and he wasn’t there to please you. The keeper believed that if Kitombe had the chance he’d rip my arm off. I don’t know if it were true. From other accounts he could be caring to his mate and children. I imagine he knew I was a male, and he didn’t like having other males around. He was the dominant gorillas. The hair on top of Kitombe’s head looked like a crown. He certainly was the king of his Franklin Park Zoo domain.
