King Foundation

Recently Frank and Ann Rubino established the Friends of King Foundation in order to aid in the study of lowland gorillas and more specifically, King, a western lowland gorilla at Monkey Jungle. Through their efforts, funds were raised to construct phase one, a new open air habitat with a moat surrounding a hardwood hammock. In January, Friends of King held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the release of King into his new domain and to thank the major donors to this cause. King bounded out the door to greet all the people who had come to see him. He spent most of the afternoon exploring the grass and the trees. King is already a willing volunteer participating in a scientific study of episodic memory. Now he is learning the names of locations of four landmarks in his new habitat so that scientists can expand the study of the gorilla mind. Fundraising for phase two, an amphitheater, so that visitors can witness the intelligence of Great Apes through demonstrations of some of the scientific studies and phase three, a science center complete with a classroom for school children, office space for scientists and additional sleeping rooms and a clinic for the inhabitants of Cameroon Forest.

This new habitat, Cameroon Forest, continues the tradition of Monkey Jungle established in 1933 by Joseph and Grace DuMond. It was Joe's dream as a young man to establish North America's first colony of free-ranging monkeys so that he and other researchers could study primate behavior and ecology as it occurs in the wild.