The Great Apes

[The Panther]

N'gagi and M'bongo, the 2 mountain gorillas that lived in San Diego Zoo back in the 1940's. One of the very rare examples of mountain gorillas living in zoos. Despite their young age they were some of the biggest captive gorillas ever recorded, N'gagi peaked at 635 lbs and M'bongo's official weight was 618 lbs, though he was said to have fluctuated between 645 to 670 lbs in life. N'gagi died at 18 and M'bongo at 16, so they were young, in the wild for a mountain gorilla to reach such impressive weights or anything remotely close they'd have to be twice their age, hence why the biggest males are usually over 30 years old.

This is N'gagi at 535 lbs

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M'bongo at 602 lbs

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N'gagi (left) M'bongo (right)

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What's interesting is that they don't look too different from the largest wild mountain gorillas, the males generally twice their age. This really shows just how impressive those older wild males are, it makes me wonder how heavy they would be if they were actually weighed.

Here are their status at San Diego Zoo

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