St. Louis Zoo sends four gorillas to Philly

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Zoo bid farewell Monday to the family of gorillas that has been a popular fixture at the zoo for years.

Jabari, Kivu, Nne Kizazi and Louis were headed for the Philadelphia Zoo, where they will live with another gorilla. They'll travel by truck, in separate crates, with a zookeeper and veterinarian along for the ride.

Officials decided there wasn't enough space to keep all seven of the zoo's great apes. They chose to keep three unattached males, and send the family to Philadelphia where they can be used in breeding projects.

That means loss some of the zoo's most-loved ambassadors, including the youngest gorilla, Louis, born at the zoo in 1999.

But the zoo gains a chance to focus attention and resources on the male "bachelors," an often neglected segment of the captive gorilla population.

The zoo hopes to make a family group out of the single males, who did not get along well with the other four gorillas. The zoo was the first to create a family group out of bachelors in the late 1980's.