RIP Ivan

ATLANTA – A 50-year-old gorilla who became a beloved figure at Zoo Atlanta after spending several decades in a Washington state department store has died, zoo officials said Tuesday.

Ivan, a male western lowland gorilla, never regained consciousness after he was put under general anesthesia Monday for a diagnostic assessment, Zoo Atlanta said. The zoo says the geriatric ape had recently lost weight, seemed to lack an appetite and had a respiratory illness.

…  Ivan had lived at Zoo Atlanta since 1994. He was born in the wild around 1962 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wildlife traders sold him to the owners of a department store in Tacoma in 1964. Three years later, he was moved to an indoor enclosure at the store. Known as the “Shopping Mall Gorilla,” Ivan had thousands of fans and visitors. More here.

For many years my youngest son asked for a monkey for his birthday which was better than asking for a baby brother, but he got neither. I’m not a fan of primates. Are you?