Zoo officials made the decision to fatally shoot the gorilla after a 3-year-old child fell into the gorilla’s enclosure.
Known by zoo employees as “Handsome Harambe,” the silverback came to Cincinnati in September, 2014.
He was born May 27, 1999, at Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas.
Harambe’s former zoo keeper said everyone who raised the gorilla is deeply hurt and affected by his death.
"He always had a little bit of a flair about him. He was not mean, he was a gentle little guy,” said Jerry Stones, Harabe’s former caretaker. “He grew up to be a beautiful, beautiful animal. He was never aggressive, never mean. He would tease the heck out of people.”
The gorilla was sent to the Cincinnati Zoo as part of western lowland gorilla species survival plan for breeding. Cincinnati Zoo Officials said he was key player in the zoo’s captive breeding and conservation efforts.
The 450-pound silverback gorilla had just celebrated his 17th birthday the day before he was shot.
“It is a big loss to the Cincinnati Zoo, Harambe was one of our most magnificent animals, he’s a critically endangered species,” said Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo.
Harambe's death is not the end of his gene pool. Zoo officials said reproductive biologists saved his sperm for future breeding.
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