http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0502150212feb15,1,3563934.story?coll=chi-news-hed"Kumba, who made history in 1970 as the city's first captive-born gorilla, was euthanized Saturday by keepers at Lincoln Park Zoo after years of slow deterioration caused by kidney failure.
The shy and mostly quiet gorilla was a cornerstone of sorts for the zoo's reputation as a successful breeding facility. In the 1930s and '40s Lincoln Park had become world famous because of a single animal, Bushman, a huge lowland gorilla voted by zoo directors as the greatest zoo attraction in the world. After his death, Lincoln Park wanted to continue his legacy by becoming a breeding center.
The zoo brought in eight young "founder" gorillas from the wild for that purpose in the 1950s and '60s. Kumba was the first baby to be born from that effort. Since then, the zoo has become one of the top gorilla breeding facilities in the world, with 45 births.
"Losing an animal is the most difficult part of working at the zoo, and it was really tough to say goodbye to Kumba," said Robyn Barbiers, the zoo's general curator."
How many of us have seen Kumba over the years? I'm not sure I've seen exactly that gorilla, but I've been tot he Lincoln Park Zoo and seen the gorillas before.
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