SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Gorilla love is in bloom at the Hogle Zoo. Sparks are flying between an unlikely Gorilla couple, and zookeepers couldn't be happier.
Tino is an old guy at 38, and if he were human he'd be in his mid-70's. The new love of his life is a mere teenager, 8-year-old Jabali.
Earlier today, guests watched and snapped pictures as the two lit up the primate habitat.
Tino’s just lucky he's not in the wild.
Hogle Zoo primate care supervisor Andy Henderson told ABC4, “In the wild, this male probably would have been put out of the breeding situation by a younger male years ago. A young, virile male would take over his troupe, take over his females. The females immigrate from a troupe, so what they do is, they go for the young studs.”
Right now Tino and Jabali are separated by a plexiglass, because they don't want Tino to have a heart attack.
“When we open that door tomorrow, they'll be all over each other” said Henderson.
Sadly, Henderson says Tino is probably sterile, and has maybe a 2-percent chance of fathering a child.
Oh well, at least they’ll always have Paris.
