Suruthi Bala
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Harambe was born in captivity at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas.
He was a western lowland gorilla, one of four subspecies of gorillas that exist today, all of which are endangered or critically endangered.
There are roughly 150,000 western lowland gorillas living in the wild and around 750 in captivity.
Given their critically endangered status, you might imagine that Harambe was part of a carefully planned breeding programme, hoping to introduce him back into the wild.
Harambe was a bit of an oops baby, actually.
Harambe was named as a part of a TV competition run by the zoo to drum up visitors for their new baby boy.
A local councillor called Dan Van Coppenol won the competition.
He chose the name because of a 1988 song called Harambe by Rita Marley.
The song is also known as Working Together for Freedom and Harambe is Swahili for communal labour.
According to the keepers and the photographers who knew Harambe, he was always charismatic.
He loved to charm zoo goers by playing out in the open with his cousins and he was a bit of a poser.
On Saturday the 28th of May, 2016, just one day after his 17th birthday, Harambe and the tourists watching him heard a splash.