Milwaukee County Zoo gorilla Cassius dead at 31
Cassius, the 31-year-old gorilla at the Milwaukee County Zoo, died Thursday night.
The cause of death is unknown. The zoo said Cassius lost interest in eating and drinking, so the zoo’s medical staff performed some preliminary tests Thursday. Cassius died unexpectedly later that night.
The median life expectancy for a gorilla under human care is about 31 years.
Cassius was born at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, and arrived in Milwaukee in 1998. The zoo has six other gorillas.
Cassius was a male western lowlands gorilla, who was designated to breed with the zoo’s two females. He is the father of Zahra, a female who was born in September. He’s also the father of Sulaiman, another young gorilla, and of a family group. The family will be off exhibit for a while, and the zoo will monitor them.
“I (and the ape staff) loved his gentle demeanor with our infants, Zahra and Sulaiman,” said Beth Rich, deputy zoo director of animal management and health. “He was very tender with babies, like a good gorilla daddy!”
“The rest of the gorillas were able to see Cassius after he died, and that’s really important for the gorilla’s family members to make that connection,” Jennifer Diliberti, public relations coordinator at the zoo, said. “They’re a close-knit group, and they would be very confused if he was just gone. So that was very helpful for them.”