Massa the Gorilla, which is one of the oldest gorillas in Europe.
When people visit the Gorilla House, Massa sits on a branch in the middle of the fence and watches at the people who come to see it. It would stretch out one leg, clench its teeth, blink, and purse its lips as if it were going to whistle.
At that moment, it looked relaxed. It propped itself up with its right arm and fed itself a mouthful of cabbage with its left hand. It looks directly into the visitor's eyes. Even if it didn't choose its own destiny, it seemed to accept life in the zoo.
Massa's life, like all animals in zoos, is determined by people's desires. It was captured and shipped to Europe because the continent wanted exotic animals.
Massa is a western lowland gorilla that is a subspecies that lives in rainforests and swampy forests in Central Africa. Massa was born in 1971.
It was a time of no sympathy for animals. Zoos don't market themselves by promoting their compassionate breeding, but by showing off their exotic animals.
The wildlife trade is a lucrative business. Zookeepers pay African middlemen, who in turn hire local hunters who know where the gorillas live.
Massa was less than a year old when he was captured, and young animals were the most sought after. At that time, in the Central African market, a young orangutan was quite valuable. From that day on, humanity decided its destiny.
Upon arriving in hamburg, Massa was sent to a small zoo in northern Germany where lion and tiger cubs, elephants and rhino babies, and great apes are housed. These animals are captured in the wild and kept in captivity before being sold again. People at the zoo say Massa is sometimes asked to take pictures there in roller skates.
In 2020, Massa the gorilla was killed in a tragic fire at the Clayfield Zoo in Germany at the age of 49. His descendants all live in zoos on the mainland.
