Husani

Husani (born December 14, 1991 at the Bronx Zoo in New York, New York) is a male Western lowland silverback gorilla who lived briefly at the Birmingham Zoo. His name is a Swahili variation of the Arabic "Hussein", meaning "beautiful".

Except for a summer in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1992, Husani was hand-reared through his first seven years at the Bronx Zoo. He was transferred to the Gulf Breeze Zoo near Pensacola, Florida in in May 1998. He came to Birmingham in January 2010 and moved in May of the same year to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he joined an older male named Tino in a "bachelor troop".

When he lived at the Birmingham Zoo, Husani stood about 5 feet tall and weighed around 330 pounds, which qualified him as "lean" for his species. He was reported to eat about nine pounds of lettuce, vegetables and fruit each day, favoring celery.

References

• Schmidt, Christia R. & Sabine Hilsberg (2001) International Gorilla Register and Studbook. Frankfurt Zoological Garden
• Parkin, Brad C. (June 16, 2010) "A Male Western Lowland Gorilla Comes Out of Quarantine at Utah's Hogle Zoo." Zoo and Aquarium Visitor