Samantha the gorilla dies at Toronto Zoo - Toronto Star August 18To the world, Samantha was just another gorilla.
To another gorilla, she was the world.
Sure, Charles had other female gorillas to cavort with. But it was Samantha, his 37-year-old steady, he favoured. The oldest female Western Lowland gorilla with a “perpetual pout” died at the Toronto Zoo Monday morning.
To another gorilla, she was the world.
Sure, Charles had other female gorillas to cavort with. But it was Samantha, his 37-year-old steady, he favoured. The oldest female Western Lowland gorilla with a “perpetual pout” died at the Toronto Zoo Monday morning.
On Tuesday, Charles sat in his enclosure expressionless. He munched his food and occasionally stood outside the door where Samantha had been recovering from a July stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body. Charles had kept her company there for the last month.
But she never bounced back to dominate the group the way she did in her heyday.
On Monday, she was euthanized after a second stroke had caused her to lose control of her limbs and experience seizures.
That afternoon, the gorilla troop visited her body to say goodbye.
“They thought she was still asleep. They touched her, and tried to rouse her and they realized she passed away,” said Dr. Chris Dutton, a veterinarian at the Toronto Zoo. “I was told a calm came over the group and they quietly left her alone.”
Charles looked uncomfortable. He picked at the door and avoided looking at her body, said gorilla keeper Ali Vella-Irving.
Like Charles, Samantha was born in Gabon, West Africa, and arrived at the Toronto Zoo in 1974. She was known for the red hair on her head, walking upright on two feet, and carrying sticks. She was a “gorilla’s gorilla,” and didn’t bother with people unless food was involved, said Vella-Irving. She was just entering the geriatric phase of her life when her strokes began.
Dutton called Samantha’s death a “blow” and said it will affect keepers, staff and the public who watched her grow up. Vella-Irving wiped away tears between interviews.
“This is a very sad day for Toronto,” Dutton said.
Samantha is survived by seven gorillas, including Charles, the dominant male silverback of the group, who fathered her five children. Two of the children, Shalia and Sadiki, remain at the zoo. Shalia has inherited her mother’s stubborn attitude and rare form of walking on two feet, Vella-Irving said.
Samantha is the fourth animal to die this year at the zoo. Two tigers and an orangutan also died.
“They live long and fruitful lives, and now some of these founder animals of our zoo collection are passing away,” Dutton said. “We’re very lucky they get to such a wonderful age — a number of them are reaching that age at the same time.”
