Changing leadership, and unforgettable firsts
1999 was an unforgettable year for the Zoo with the arrival of Lun Lun and Yang Yang, a pair of giant pandas on loan from China. Even as the city celebrated the beloved bears, Atlanta joined the Zoo in mourning Willie B., who passed away in 2000 at the age of 42. The gorilla who had become the symbol of the Zoo’s resurgence was eulogized by Ambassador Andrew Young, memorialized by a crowd of over 5,000 people, and remembered by media throughout the U.S., including Time magazine.The early years of the 21st century were challenging ones for Zoo Atlanta. Like many of the nation’s cultural destinations, the Zoo felt the impact of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Zoo leaders embarked on a crucial period of evaluation, aligning the Zoo’s mission of conservation, education and family fun with a new strategic plan that would guide the institution in a growing and changing city and state.
Maple announced his retirement from Zoo Atlanta in 2002, and Dennis W. Kelly assumed leadership as President and CEO in 2003. Outback Station, the final phase of the Orkin Children’s Zoo, opened in 2004, followed by The Living Treehouse, a new addition to The Ford African Rain Forest.
Gorillas were household names again in 2005 when Kuchi delivered a rare set of twins.
No mother gorilla had ever successfully reared twins in a zoological environment without human intervention. Willie B.’s first grandchild, Macy Baby, was born to Kudzoo in December 2005. Macy would later be joined by many more grandchildren of Willie B. in the years to come: Gunther, born to Sukari in 2006; Merry Leigh, born to Kudzoo in 2011; Andi, born to Lulu in 2013; Anaka, born to Sukari in 2013; Mijadala, born to Kudzoo in 2016; Floyd, born to Lulu in 2019; and Willie B. III, born to Shalia in 2023.
Redirecting attention from baby gorillas would prove difficult, but in 2006, a tiny, hairless newborn did just that. Born on September 6, 2006, Lun Lun and Yang Yang’s firstborn, Mei Lan, was the only giant panda cub born in the U.S. that year. Mei Lan’s brother, Xi Lan, was born on August 30, 2008, followed by sister Po on November 3, 2010.
The second decade of the 2000s brought new leadership. Following the departure of Dennis Kelly, who accepted a position at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Atlanta native Raymond B. King took the helm as President and CEO of Zoo Atlanta in 2010. King’s first habitat opening was Trader’s Alley: Wildlife’s Fading Footprints (2010 and later redesigned as Corridor to Change), followed by Complex Carnivores (2011) and Twiga Terrace (2012). Splash Fountain presented by Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority opened in 2013. Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience opened in 2015. The first in a series of significant transformations for Zoo Atlanta, Scaly Slimy Spectacular replaced the outdated World of Reptiles and was the world’s first LEED-Gold certified reptile and amphibian complex.
Animal firsts of this decade would include Zuri, the Zoo’s first giraffe calf (2010); Sohni and Sanjiv, the first Sumatran tiger cubs born at Zoo Atlanta in more than a decade (2011); Beauregard, the Zoo’s first eastern bongo calf (2011); Zoo Atlanta’s first Guatemalan beaded lizard hatchling (2012); and Jabari, the first black rhino calf ever born in Zoo Atlanta history (2013).
August 20, 2012, saw the passing of a legend with the death of western lowland gorilla Ivan at the geriatric age of 50. Ivan, who lived at Zoo Atlanta for the last 18 years of his life, was later immortalized in the beloved The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate and its subsequent film adaptation, with a legacy that continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of young readers worldwide.
Panda joy returned on July 15, 2013, with the birth of twins Mei Lun and Mei Huan. The cubs were the first giant panda twins to be born in the U.S. since 1987. A second set of twins and the sixth and seventh offspring of Lun Lun and Yang Yang, Ya Lun and Xi Lun were born September 3, 2016.
Just over two weeks later, on September 18, 2016, Willie B.’s firstborn, Kudzoo, delivered another grandchild of the famous late silverback, her third daughter, Mijadala.
Two special infant orangutans joined the Zoo Atlanta animal population during this decade – in very different ways. Born January 10, 2013, Sumatran orangutan Pongo was delivered via a rare Caesarean section, and his first-time mother, Blaze, did not initially accept him. Pongo received round-the-clock care in the Zoo’s veterinary clinic until, in a moment of joy for his care team, mom Blaze accepted him around two months later.
A second orangutan youngster, Bornean orangutan infant Keju, arrived at Zoo Atlanta in October 2015. Born at Henry Vilas Zoo in Wisconsin, Keju needed an orangutan mother when her birth mother did not provide appropriate maternal care. Legendary supermom Madu was selected to rear what became her fourth foster infant.
Zoo Atlanta mourned the loss of two treasured individuals in 2017: Chantek the orangutan on August 7 at age 39 following more than 20 years at the Zoo, and Shamba the gorilla on October 27 at age 58. A mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great grandmother, Shamba was a member of the original group of western lowland gorillas who arrived at the Zoo in the 1980s.
Reminiscent of this extraordinary legacy, Zoo Atlanta celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Ford African Rain Forest in May 2018.