{"id":357657,"date":"2026-07-30T15:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357657\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:21:11","slug":"disneys-animal-kingdom-welcomes-new-gorilla-leader-bakari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357657\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney’s Animal Kingdom welcomes new gorilla leader Bakari"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bakari, a western lowland silverback gorilla, is getting accustomed to his new home and leadership role at Disney\u2019s Animal Kingdom<\/a> theme park.<\/p>\n

Visitors may spy the 21-year-old male along the park\u2019s Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail<\/a>. Bakari previously lived in a bachelor group at a zoo and now is being introduced to females and social interactions, Walt Disney World<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all very new for Bakari,\u201d animal-care expert Rachel Daneault said on the official Disney Parks Blog<\/a>. \u201cOur goal is to help him feel comfortable and confident at every stage. We take the process slowly because building those social relationships with the females is incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family group previously was led by Gino, who lived at Animal Kingdom<\/a> from the time of the park\u2019s opening in 1998 until his death in September 2025. He was 44.<\/p>\n

Disney says Bakari was living at an Association of Zoos and Aquariums<\/a>-accredited zoo and that the move is a part of the organization\u2019s Species Survival Plan and its breeding plan. The St. Louis Zoo<\/a>, in a post on social media a month ago, said Bakari was transferring from that facility to another institution in \u201cCentral Florida to start his own family.\u201d\u00a0 He had been in St. Louis since 2011 and was born in Chicago\u2019s Brookfield Zoo<\/a> in 2005.<\/p>\n

Disney adds \u2018Zootopia 2\u2019 character to Animal Kingdom show<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPairing Bakari with our females can help strengthen the long-term future of the population,\u201d Daneault said. \u201cThat\u2019s important because we want future generations to be able to connect with these animals and be inspired to help protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Gino had a bombastic, chest-pounding demeanor, so far Bakari is calm while absorbing the activities in his new surroundings, Disney says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the dawn of a new era,\u201d Daneault said.<\/p>\n

Wall-to-wall update: Future attractions in works at theme parks<\/a><\/p>\n

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. BlueSky: @themeparksdb. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bakari, a western lowland silverback gorilla, is getting accustomed to his new home and leadership role at Disney\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,2659,104,28,29,9571,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,11384,109,76686,76687,76688,76689,2411,106,1316,107],"class_list":["post-357657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-disney-world","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-lake-buena-vista","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pets-and-animals","tag-social","tag-social-business","tag-social-entertainment","tag-social-theme-parks","tag-social-travel","tag-theme-parks","tag-things-to-do","tag-tourism","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}