The protests to move Ivan stemmed from a growing movement to house captive wild animals in larger, more naturalistic settings-the kind of enclosures that, today, are common at zoos. Ivan lived out the rest of his life at Zoo Atlanta and died at age 50 in 2012. Zoo Atlanta has one of the best programs for western lowland gorillas like Ivan and, by 1994, they’d already rehabilitated another gorilla, Willie B., who had grown up and spent most of his adult life in circumstances similar to Ivan’s. Facing financial troubles, Ivan’s owners allowed Ivan to move to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, which then sent Ivan to Zoo Atlanta in 1994 on permanent loan. In the late 1980s, the animal welfare group PAWS began to agitate for Ivan to be moved to a more naturalistic environment. He spent the next 23 years of his life there. For three years, Ivan lived like a child in his owner’s home-but when he became too large and rambunctious, he was moved to a 14x14-foot enclosure in the B&I strip mall. The female died in transit to the United States or shortly after arriving in the country, but the owner of the B&I department store in Tacoma, Washington purchased Ivan. Ivan the gorilla was around two years old when he and a female infant gorilla were captured in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1964. The One and Only Ivan is based on a true story.
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