The Louisville Courier-Journal reported Thursday that Timmy, a male Silverback gorilla who had lived in the city's zoo since 2004, had been put down after years of declining health. It turns out that Timmy, who lived to 52, a ripe old age for a male Silverback, was a former Memphian of sorts. Born in 1959 in Cameroon, a young Timmy made his U.S. public debut in 1960 at the Memphis Zoo, where he would stay for a few years before moving on to Cleveland for about 25 years and then to the Bronx Zoo and the Louisville Zoo. Timmy, who was the oldest male western lowland gorilla in North America, was a throwback to the days of animals captured in the wild and put on display in enclosures of concrete and metal. As Jordan Schaul of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center writes in National Geographic Newswatch:
Long after Timmy's departure for Cleveland in the 60′s, the Memphis Zoo built Primate Canyon which includes a gorilla habitat and exhibits for 9 other species of primates.Timmy was also a late bloomer, as well as a participant in as star-crossed a love affair as one could conceive of among the great apes:
The gentle giant went on to sire 13 offspring. Schaul writes:
For most of his tenure in Cleveland, Timmy showed little to no interest in female companions and failed to sire any offspring.The silverback finally courted Kate-an infertile cage-mate. The relationship blossomed, but the romance with Kate was not to be long-lived. Their "love affair" ended amid controversy when Timmy was loaned to the Bronx Zoo to breed with reproductively viable females.
Moving him to the Bronx Zoo to "pass" on his genes-deemed valuable to the captive population of lowland gorillas-was not met with unanimous approval. The sentiment of some members of the public was that a separation from Kate for the sake of gorilla conservation was more than unfair to the two gorillas who had developed an apparently strong bond and "loving" relationship.
Most of us thought of Timmy as a celebrity and ultimately an ambassador for lowland gorillas worldwide. He will be missed.PICTURED: A pensive-looking Timmy is shown in a March 28, 2005, file photo taken at the Louisville Zoo.
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