Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of humans, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after chimpanzees.
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling interest in both the Nine Network and the publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later merged to form Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). Outside Australia, Packer was best known for founding World Series Cricket. At the time of his death, he was the richest and one of the most influential men in Australia. In 2004, Business Review Weekly magazine estimated Packer's net worth at A$6.5 billion.
James Douglas Packer is an Australian billionaire businessman and investor. Packer is the son of Kerry Packer, a media mogul, and his wife, Roslyn Packer. He is the grandson of Frank Packer. He inherited control of the family company, Consolidated Press Holdings Limited, as well as investments in Crown Resorts and other companies. He is the former executive chairman of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and Consolidated Media Holdings, which predominantly owned media interests across a range of platforms, and a former executive chairman of Crown Resorts.
Binti Jua is a female western lowland gorilla resident at the Brookfield Zoo, in Brookfield, Illinois, outside Chicago, United States. She received media attention after a situation in 1996 in which she tended to a three-year-old boy who had been injured by falling into her enclosure.
John Victor Aspinall was an English zoo and casino owner. From upper class beginnings he used gambling to move to the centre of British high society in the 1960s. He was born in Delhi during the British Raj, and was a citizen of the United Kingdom.
The Berlin Zoological Garden is the oldest surviving and best-known zoo in Germany. Opened in 1844, it covers 35 hectares and is located in Berlin's Tiergarten. With about 1,380 different species and over 20,200 animals, the zoo presents one of the most comprehensive collections of species in the world.
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve near the town of Hythe in Kent, England is set in 600 acres (2.4 km2) and incorporates the historic Port Lympne Mansion, and landscaped gardens designed by architect Sir Herbert Baker, for Sir Philip Sassoon.
Donna Marie Theresa Air is an English actress, producer and philanthropist.
Stephen Robert Irwin, known as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist.
Harambe was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo. On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy visiting the zoo climbed under a fence into an outdoor gorilla enclosure where he was grabbed and violently dragged and thrown by Harambe. Fearing for the boy's life, a zoo worker shot and killed Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to use lethal force. A number of primatologists and conservationists wrote later that the zoo had no other choice under the circumstances, and that it highlighted the danger of zoo animals near humans and the need for better standards of care.
Crown London is a private members club, established by John Aspinall in London since the 1960s. Crown London is currently at 27–28 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London.
Robin Marcus Birley is an English businessman, entrepreneur and political donor. He is the son of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the nightclub owner Mark Birley. He had a brother, Rupert, who disappeared and is presumed deceased, and a sister, India Jane Birley. His half-brother is the former MP, now peer, Zac Goldsmith.
Charles the Gorilla was a wild-born western lowland gorilla from Gabon, West Africa who was notable for being the silverback of the Toronto Zoo's gorilla troop from September 1974 until his death in October 2024.
The Aspinall Foundation is a British charity that promotes wildlife conservation. It was set up by casino owner John Aspinall in 1984 and runs the two zoos he established, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park and Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent, England. It also runs conservation projects to protect endangered species and rehome captive animals in the wild. The current chairman is Damian Aspinall, son of the founder, and is likely to be succeeded by his daughter, Freya Aspinall, an Internet celebrity who uses social media to increase exposure for the charity and runs the charity's U.S. based affilate.
Francesco Romano Nardelli is an Italian naturalist who has dedicated his life to the protection and conservation of endangered species. He is also the co-founder, with John Aspinall, of the Sumatran Rhino Project, one of the most important coordinated efforts to save a critically endangered species.
Sir George Francis Osborne, 16th Baronet, was an Anglo-Irish baronet and British Army officer. He was decorated for gallantry during the First World War.
Pattycake, also known as Patty Cake was a female western lowland gorilla born to Lulu and Kongo at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. She was the first baby gorilla successfully born in captivity in New York. Months after her much publicized birth, Pattycake's arm was broken when it got stuck in her cage as her mother grabbed her away from her father. The incident was sensationally anthropomorphized in the media as a domestic dispute between Lulu and Kongo, but in reality experts thought it was a simple accident.
Lady Georgiana Mary Curzon Kidston, Lady Starkey was an English socialite, included in The Book of Beauty by Cecil Beaton.
Annelisa Marcelle Kilbourn was a British conservationist, veterinarian and wildlife expert. She worked in Malaysia guarding free-ranging elephants and orangutans and protecting Sumatran rhinoceros and in Madagascar studying ring-tailed lemurs. Kilbourn went on to work at the Lincoln Park Zoo and Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. In Gabon, she established that wild gorillas were susceptible to death of the Ebola virus and could be transmitted to humans through hunting and eating infected species. In 2003, Kilbourn was posthumously elected to the Global 500 Roll of Honour by the United Nations Environment Programme.
