Toledo Zoo's Gorilla in the sixties who spit on visitors

[Apelover]

Would anyone remember the name of the Gorilla that use to hold a mouth full of water then when visitors got close he would climb the bars to get an advantage and maximum height to cover the most visitors with his spray? This large primate lived at the Toledo Zoo, in Ohio.

 

[Zoofan15]

Would anyone remember the name of the Gorilla that use to hold a mouth full of water then when visitors got close he would climb the bars to get an advantage and maximum height to cover the most visitors with his spray? This large primate lived at the Toledo Zoo, in Ohio.

That would have been Togo. He lived at the zoo with his mate, Porta:

1.0 Togo (1955) died 1985
0.1 Porta (1954) died 1993

They produced four infants together, two of which survived to adulthood - two females born 1969 and 1971.

 

[Pertinax]

Would anyone remember the name of the Gorilla that use to hold a mouth full of water then when visitors got close he would climb the bars to get an advantage and maximum height to cover the most visitors with his spray? This large primate lived at the Toledo Zoo, in Ohio.

Did Toledo have Chimpanzees then? This sounds very much like Chimpanzee behaviour, not Gorilla. A male chimp at Bristol Zoo in the UK used to do exactly the same.

 

[Pertinax]

That would have been Togo. He lived at the zoo with his mate, Porta:

1.0 Togo (1955) died 1985
0.1 Porta (1954) died 1993

They produced four infants together, two of which survived to adulthood - two females born 1969 and 1971.

Togo and Porta were an incompatible pair in that Togo bullied his partner badly and at maturity they were kept seperate. In an experiment to reduce his aggression, Togo was given a sedative/calming drug before being reintroduced when Porta was in oestrus- it appeared to work, at least to some degree. Photos of Togo show him to be pretty stressed as he was heavily plucked, as I think was Porta.

I think the 'climb and spitting' behaviour is more typical of chimps.