Charles

Charles (Born 1972) is a Western Lowland Gorilla who currently resides at Toronto Zoo, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was born during 1972 in Gabon, West Africa where he spent the first year or so of his life. When he was around a year old, his family were attacked by poachers who wanted to kidnap the young gorillas for the lucrative zoo trade. As adult gorillas are extremely protective towards their young, poachers usually kill the adults before abducting their children. It is believed that Charles was found next to the corpse of his deceased mother before being kidnapped and taken to Canada. He was taken to the newly-opened Toronto Zoo on the 24th September 1974 and named Charles as zookeepers believed he looked similar to comic strip character Charlie Brown. When Charles was first brought to the zoo, he was considered rather unattractive as he was missing part of his hair and had lesions and sores that bespeckled his body.

Charles, along with Amanda, Barney, Caroline, Josephine, Julia and Samantha were the first gorillas to arrive at Toronto Zoo and enjoyed great popularity, with over a million patrons visiting them each year. Charles is a successful father as he fathered 16 children, 11 of which survive as of 2018. Since Josephine’s death in 2020, Charles has been the last surviving member of the original gorillas of Toronto Zoo.

Charles is an accomplished artist and has been since 1990. He first began his career in the arts as part of a behavioural enrichment program begun in 1990 to isolate Charles from the rest of the troop for a brief period every day. He was separated from his group as he was disinterested in interacting with offspring who were not his own and his keepers wished to introduce his group to the progeny of other gorillas at the zoo. To keep Charles contented during his periods of isolation, he was provided with large sheets of paper and non-toxic paints. To raise funds for a new gorilla exhibit at Toronto Zoo, some of his works were exhibited and sold at a private art gallery. They were sold for between $400 to $800 each and raised over $37,000 for Toronto Zoo.

In the wild, young male gorillas tend to leave the troop of their birth and seek out new troops as they mature in the hope that they may become troop leaders themselves. For this reason, several of Charles’s children have been relocated to other zoos. These include: his daughter, Sekani (born 1990) who now resides in Little Rock Zoo, Arkansas, his son Jomo (born 1991) who now resides in Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio and his son Subira who now resides in Dallas Zoo, Texas. Charles also has five younger children who continue to reside with him at the Toronto Zoo, these are: his daughter, Johari (born 12th May 2001), his son, Sadiki (born 7th March 2005), his son, Nassir (born 2nd September 2009), his daughter, Nneka (born 9th January 2014) and his daughter, Charlie (born 7th June 2018).

Charles also had another son who was relocated to Dallas Zoo, Jabari (1990-2004), who in March 2004 was murdered by the Dallas Police after escaping his enclosure. Jabari had been enraged by a gang of youths taunting him and attempted to exact revenge by climbing the 18-foot wall and running amok amongst visitors to the zoo. During the event, three visitors were injured. It is not known whether these were innocent patrons or the individuals who were taunting Jabari. After 45 minutes, the Dallas Police were called and engaged Jabari. Due to the chaotic situation, Jabari attempted to attack the police officers, which caused him to be shot and killed. He was shot before the zoo keepers were able to attempt to dart him or subdue him in a non-lethal manner.

Until 2020, Charles resided with fellow geriatric gorilla Josephine, but she died in December 2020. He currently resides at Toronto Zoo with his younger children, where he remains popular with keepers and visitors.