Wildlife park to adopt NZ's first gorillas

Kibabu, a large Silverback will soon call Orana Wildlife Park home. Photo / Supplied by Taronga Zoo

New Zealand is to adopt its first ever group of gorillas in an ambitious project to put them on show at a wildlife park.

Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park will initially accept three of the critically endangered Western Lowland Gorillas from Sydney's Taronga Zoo - a large Silverback named Kibabu, aged 33, and his two sons Fataki, 7, and Fuzu, 3. The park will also join an international breeding programme.

Male Silverbacks such as Kibabu have the strength of 11 men and weigh over 200kg.

A $2 million habitat for the gorillas is to be specially constructed at the park before the trio are due to arrive in 2013.

"This an extremely significant project - it will be a first for New Zealand as gorillas have never been displayed in the country," said park chief executive Lynn Anderson.

"Gorillas are immensely popular animals and are totally different to anything else displayed at the park. The gorillas will have a large indoor playroom, a big outdoor grassed area and visitors will have the opportunity to view them across water moats and through glass barriers."

Western Lowland Gorillas are classified as Critically Endangered due to hunting, disease and habitat loss. Orana will join the international zoo-based breeding programme and help raise awareness of the plight of the animals.

Taronga Zoo primate manager, Louise Grossfeldt, said the move by Kibabu and his sons was critical to the stability of Taronga's world-renowned Western Lowland Gorilla group, and mirrored the life cycle of male gorillas in the wild.

"Bachelor groups are common in gorilla society. Fuzu and Fataki will soon be reaching sexual maturity and in the wild they would be driven away from their family groups by the Silverback so he can maintain his dominance."

Gorillas are the largest and most powerful of all the primates and are one of the Great Apes, along with Orangutans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos. They are known for their "human-like" behaviour and form very active display groups as they regularly forage for food and often sit close to glass barriers.

They can live to 50 years in captivity.