Gorilla Fatou celebrates his 68th birthday: A festival in the Berlin Zoo!

Gorilla Fatou celebrates his 68th birthday: A festival in the Berlin Zoo!

A special anniversary is celebrated in the Berlin Zoo: The Gorilla girl Fatou, one of the last animals that still come from the wild, has celebrated its 68th birthday. Fatou came to Berlin in 1959 and was estimated for two years. Although the exact date of birth is unknown, her birthday has been celebrated on April 13 for several years. As part of the celebrations next Sunday, the Zoo visitors can expect a little surprise for the elderly Gorilla lady.

fatou has special nutritional needs; Due to her advanced age, she needs soft food that she can chew without teeth. Vegetables are mostly found on their menu, since it can only get a little fruit to reduce the sugar content. In general, gorillas almost exclusively eat vegetarian and eat leaves, herbs, roots and fruits in nature.

The urgent protection of gorillas

Despite these positive news, gorillas in the wild face major challenges. They are considered to be threatened with extinction, which is mainly due to the destruction of their habitat by deforestation and mining as well as illegal hunting. It is estimated that only about 300,000 western lowland gorillas in Africa currently live, the population of which has dropped by almost 80 % in the past 70 years. Zoo director Andreas Knieriem emphasizes the urgent need for action to protect these fascinating animals.

To secure the existence of the Gorillas, the Berlin Zoo starts an innovative research project in cooperation with the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). This aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor and protect the gorillas. The system, known as "Gorilla Tracker", enables individual gorillas to be identified and followed by video recordings.

technology and species protection

The first tests of the project have already started, with three cameras being installed on the outer enclosure, in which the Gorillas Sango, Bibi and other animals live. The AI ​​analyzes the collected video recordings to monitor the movements and behaviors of the gorillas. It recognizes faces and creates digital fingerprints of the animals. This technology could be crucial in order to be able to react early to diseases and epidemics, as the Ebola outbreak in the 2000s shows that many gorillas and chimpanzees killed.

Gerard de Melo, project manager at the HPI, emphasizes the significant contribution of AI to species protection, since this is able to analyze large amounts of data and recognize behavior patterns. The goal is to use the AI ​​models in a national park in the Republic of Congo after the tests in the Berlin Zoo to better protect the gorillas there.

The commitment of the Berlin Zoo, Fatou and its fellow species through modern technologies shows how important innovative approaches have become in species protection. In view of the challenges that gorillas are facing in their natural environment, there is no doubt that such projects represent valuable support in the preservation of these majestic animals.

For more information on these developments, read more at rbb24 and Zoo Berlin .