Pete

Pete was a western lowland gorilla who resided at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. At the time of his death in November 2018, he was one of the oldest living male gorillas in North America after Ozoum. He was a father, grandfather and great-grandfather and he was the great-grandfather of Yola, who was at the time of Pete’s death the youngest gorilla at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Pete lived at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo some 1969 where he, along with Nina was one of the the founders of Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo‘s gorilla population. He and Nina had four children together and he had a firth child with another female. He also has 19 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Nina died in 2015 due to age-related health issues. After Nina’s death, Pete moved in with another gorilla of a similar age, Amanda who was then aged 45 and was 48 by the time of Pete’s death.

During the past few days prior to his death, the geriatric gorilla had been showing signs of slowing down. “His appetite and activity level were low. He was under 24-hour close observation when he passed away in the presence of a gorilla keeper”. Following his death a necropsy was conducted as well as a pathology test.