Little Joe Gorilla To Leave Boston
- Franklin Park Zoo announced it will transfer Little Joe, the western lowland gorilla that once escaped, to another institution. - Officials hope he will be placed at an accredited facility where he can start a family and breed successfully. - Zoo officials said the transfer advances welfare and breeding goals for gorillas (see patch.com).
Little Joe, the gorilla who escaped Franklin Park Zoo in 2003, is leaving Boston in the coming months for another accredited zoo. (zoonewengland.org) Zoo New England said April 21 that Little Joe, a 33-year-old western lowland gorilla, is moving under a breeding recommendation from the Gorilla Species Survival Plan, a national program coordinated through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. (zoonewengland.org) The zoo did not name Little Joe’s destination, but said the goal is for him to lead his own troop and start a family at another Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited institution. (cbsnews.com) Species Survival Plans are the breeding and population-management programs that accredited zoos use to decide which animals should move, breed, or stay put to keep captive populations genetically diverse. (aza.org) That system matters for Little Joe because western lowland gorillas are listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with losses driven by poaching, disease, and habitat loss. (iucnredlist.org) Zoo New England said Little Joe’s genetics and temperament both factored into the recommendation, and assistant curator Erica Farrell said male gorilla moves depend heavily on social stability and group dynamics. (zoonewengland.org) Franklin Park Zoo is reshaping its own gorilla group at the same time. The zoo said it will receive two young gorillas later this spring, including 8-year-old Moke from Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and then another male silverback later this year. (zoonewengland.org) Those arrivals will join 5-year-old Pablo in what the zoo calls a bachelor group, a male-only social unit that the Gorilla Species Survival Plan and the Smithsonian say mirrors one of the ways gorillas are managed in zoos and observed in the wild. (zoonewengland.org) (nationalzoo.si.edu) Little Joe’s name has stayed familiar in Boston because he broke out of his enclosure in September 2003, ran into the city, injured a 2-year-old girl, and was recaptured about two hours later. The zoo made safety upgrades afterward. (cbsnews.com) (wcvb.com) Zoo New England President and Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Brinley called the move “bittersweet” and said staff are preparing Little Joe for the transfer. For Franklin Park Zoo, the next public change will be a new gorilla lineup without the silverback that became one of its best-known residents. (zoonewengland.org)
