Check Out This Awesome Gorilla Dad at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
With Father’s Day right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to focus on dads and their importance in the animal world. Disney’s animal care team cares for more than 2,000 animals at Walt Disney World Resort, and that includes some pretty awesome dads from all sorts of species! Some species like the gorillas, for instance, have great paternal instincts and play an active role in rearing their young. In fact, there’s have an exceptional gorilla dad at Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Gino. Gino is the adult male leader of our family troop of western lowland gorillas.
Gino has been at Animal Kingdom since 1998 and has fathered six offspring during his time with us. Most recently, his daughter Grace was born in early May!
As the leader of his troop, Gino helps maintain a well-balanced dynamic among all the members within the family, which includes two adult females, Kashata and Azizi, and their offspring, Lilly (9), Cory (4), Flint (4), and baby Grace. Gino’s role in the family is surprisingly similar to a human dad. He protects the entire group and helps keeps the peace if things get a little too rowdy.
Visitors to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail at Animal Kingdom can often see Gino playing with his older offspring, or interacting with enrichment items near them to model behaviors, such as climbing or searching for food. By playing with his kids, Gino’s involvement gives the adult females a break from parenting. He likes to play in a “rough and tumble” manner with the boys and big sister Lilly.
Gino is skilled as the gentle disciplinarian of the troop – he knows when it’s time to correct his offspring’s behavior and can even be seen having teachable moments. For instance, if one of his sons is doing something they shouldn’t, Gino may charge at him, causing him to run away from the area and stop the behavior. This lets the little one know that what he was doing was inappropriate without being too aggressive.
Western lowland gorillas are a critically endangered species with a declining population in the wild due to hunting and habitat loss. As part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Disney’s animal care team at Animal Kingdom works with other accredited zoos to participate in cooperative Species Survival Plans for responsible breeding of endangered species, such as gorillas, so they will have healthy, genetically diverse families for years to come.
Be sure to pay a visit to Animal Kingdom to see these awesome creatures for yourself next time you are at Disney World!
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