Gorillas coming to terms with death of Ya Pili

Monday 22nd October 2007, 12:00AM BST.

TEN days after the death of a four-year-old gorilla at the Durrell wildlife park, her family are said to be starting to show positive signs of coming to terms with their loss.

Western lowland gorilla Ya Pili died on the morning of Friday 12 October after a sudden illness lasting a week. A post-mortem has been carried out, but the results of this are not expected for some time. While the death remains unexplained, there are no signs of ill-health in the rest of the group of gorillas at Durrell, who are led by the silverback male Ya Kwanza. Richard Johnstone-Scott, who has been working with gorillas for 40 years, said that all the staff who had worked with Ya Pili were obviously devastated by her death. However, the impact of the loss had hit the rest of the gorillas the hardest.

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