Carers at a sanctuary in Gabon are trying to find a companion for Jojo, a gorilla who has lived almost his entire life alone, the BBC reported. Taken from the wild as an infant after poachers killed his family, Jojo spent years in a tiny cage at a private zoo. In 2015, then 11, he took his first tentative steps onto grass. More than a decade later he is settled at the Lekedi Foundation, but he has not had a gorilla family, or any gorilla friends, since he was captured. "He's probably the most extreme case of isolation I've ever seen in a great ape," said Prof. Gillian Forrester of the University of Sussex, who is studying Jojo as part of research on great-ape psychology and how rescued animals recover from trauma.
Jojo was less than a year old, an infant clinging to his mother, when he was taken and sold. Most gorillas spend the first 14 to 19 years in a family unit; he was kept completely alone and on public display. Maxe Anaclet Makaba, Lekedi's head keeper, who sees him nearly every day, said it is clear he "craves human interaction" and will even gather leaves for people. Forrester said he is now fully mature and showing signs of harmful, chronic stress. "Being connected to others is incredibly important to our psychology as great apes," she said. "Having another individual to share his life with would be so healing for him." Makaba put it more simply: "It would be good for him to have a companion. Because being alone is like being cut off from the world - it's like being in prison."
Finding that companion is not straightforward. The sanctuary would like another rescued or zoo-bred gorilla, perhaps a female or a compatible male, but no one knows how Jojo would react. Moving an animal from an accredited zoo would be a decision for an international committee, based on genetics, health, personality and compatibility. Slow, cautious introductions do happen when apes move between zoo groups. Forrester has contacted accredited zoos, but those discussions are at an early stage, and existing systems, she said, "are not designed for reintroductions into the wild, or to find companions for animals that might need them."
The verified story is a search, not a completed pairing. Jojo's keepers and the scientists around him want a friend for an animal whose isolation Forrester calls extreme. Whether a suitable gorilla can be found, and whether the two would accept each other, remains open.