# @thetorontozoo on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddqusp4DIQk
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70750982-thetorontozoo-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/82f52a8910.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-24T11:01:21.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Toronto Zoo (@thetorontozoo) — https://gondola.cc/thetorontozoo

## Caption

As proud Guardians of Gorillas, and on this #WorldGorillaDay, we celebrate and raise awareness for the critically endangered Western lowland gorilla, a species facing immense challenges in the wild 🦍

Are you aware that over the past 20–25 years, gorilla populations have declined by more than 60%, with numbers still dropping at an annual rate of 2.7% due to poaching, disease, and habitat loss? 

Here at your Toronto Zoo, we’re proud to be part of the AZA Species Survival Plan® (SSP), ensuring healthy, genetically diverse populations while supporting conservation programs to protect gorillas globally.

Our Guardians of Wild 2025–2028 Strategic Plan is pivoting your Toronto Zoo toward becoming a “community-funded conservation science organization,” with a strong emphasis on expanding its conservation science, breeding, biobanking, and collaboration globally.

An important component of this strategy is our continued partnership with Species360, through which we aim to enhance cryopreservation data within the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS), to better catalogue and share genetic materials. This expansion is intended to support species recovery, genetic rescue, and more coordinated international biobanking efforts. In relation to our work with the Western lowland gorilla, we are one of the sponsors of Species360’s reports on welfare for great apes produced via the Species360 Conservation Science Alliance.

Back in 2022, and alongside our fundraising partners at the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy tzwconservancy, we committed $250,000 over 10 years to support Ape Action Africa and the Gorilla SAFE program, joining the more than $5.5 million AZA zoos contribute each year to gorilla conservation.

During your next visit, you can also step behind the scenes of the gorilla habitat and meet with a Wildlife Care member through a Wild Encounter. Learn all about this magnificent species and witness a feeding session up close – all while discovering the daily care and conservation efforts that go into protecting and nurturing the gorilla troop. Learn more at torontozoo.com/wildencounters.

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## Tags

worldgorilladay

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