St. Paul's Como Zoo Introduces Gorilla Forest

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- There is now another reason to go to Como Zoo. The new Gorilla Forest just opened Thursday morning at the St. Paul facility.

There are seven gorillas in the exhibit, and six are new to Como Zoo. The Gorilla Forest is the largest all-mesh gorilla enclosure in North America.

"It's about three times the outdoor space they had before, but it's actually divided into two separate exhibits, so it makes it easy for us to be able to manage the two different groups of gorillas that we have," said Allison Jungheim, a senior zookeeper at the Como Zoo.

The gorillas names are Schroeder, Alice, Nne, Dara, Jabir, Virgil and Samson. For now, Schroeder has been placed with the three females forming a family group and hopefully there will be baby gorillas some day.

The other three males are kept separate. Zookeepers call them the bachelors.