The Cincinnati Zoo says a 37-year-old male silverback gorilla is safely back home some 28 years after he went to California.
The zoo says Ndume (nnn-DOO’-may) arrived Friday morning and is settling in behind the scenes in its Gorilla World area.
The Gorilla Foundation in California was under federal court order to transfer Ndume on Thursday for a flight to Ohio. He was loaned in 1991 to be a companion for Koko, the gorilla famed for learning sign language. Cincinnati Zoo officials sought Ndume’s return after Koko died last June.
The Gorilla Foundation contended the transfer would harm Ndume. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco ruled in February that the gorilla should be returned .
The foundation says it was sad Ndume was moving .
