More Animals of Record: A Gibbon, Two Lions, Hellbenders, and Two Tigers in a Pandemic

2013–2026

The gibbon: On 16 April 2013 a rare Javan gibbon was born at the zoo. The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo was then one of only two accredited zoos in North America to exhibit the species, and part of an international consortium working to establish Javan gibbons in captivity; its conservation program for the species reached back to the gibbons' habitat in Java, to population studies and a research project on the connection between coffee plantations and the gibbons' rain forest.

Bill, and Kiume after him: The African Journey's lion Bill, among the zoo's most famous residents, was euthanized on 6 April 2016 after a diagnosis of aggressive cancer; his death stands in the Local Animals record. The lion ground's current chapter opened in March 2025, when the zoo welcomed Kiume, a thirteen-year-old male African lion from the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, as a companion for Ina, the lioness in its care — the pair holding the exhibit the 2007 fire had once threatened, in the zoo's sixtieth season.

Hellbenders: The zoo's conservation record has a local species on it. The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is one of three Indiana zoos working with Purdue University to raise hellbenders — the giant salamanders of Indiana's rivers, state-endangered — in captivity until they are ready for release, in an effort to grow the wild population. Young hellbenders were transferred from Purdue's Aquaculture Research Lab to the zoo in the spring of 2015, to be reared for the next couple of years; the zoo's Kids4Nature program put the species before its guests as one of the causes their quarters could vote to fund.

The tigers of 2021: On 4 February 2021 the zoo announced that two of its Sumatran tigers, Bugara and Indah, had tested positive for COVID-19, after showing mild signs of a dry cough. Fecal samples were tested in veterinary laboratories; both cats recovered without incident. The episode stands in the record at that size — a pandemic reaching into Tiger Forest, and passing.

The conservation scale: The figures move with the years and are printed dated. The zoo's 2016 releases credited it with cooperative management programs for more than ninety species and taxa — Sumatran orangutans, reticulated giraffes and African penguins among them; its current published record counts more than thirty conservation partners around the globe and participation in over fifty-six Species Survival Plan programs. In 2021 its guests directed more than $350,000 to conservation projects, the zoo's best year to that date.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne Children's Zoo news release, "Rare Javan gibbon born at Zoo," 1 May 2013 (the birth of 16 April 2013; one of two North American zoos exhibiting the species; the consortium), via AroundFortWayne.
2. Fort Wayne Zoo news release, "Fort Wayne Zoo welcomes new African lion, Kiume," March 2025 (Kiume, 13, ex-John Ball Zoo; the lioness Ina), via Amusement Today.
3. Purdue University Extension, "Helping the Hellbenders at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo," 14 March 2016 (one of three Indiana zoos; the spring 2015 transfer; Kids4Nature), purdue.edu.
4. WANE 15, "2 Fort Wayne Children's Zoo tigers test positive for COVID-19," 6 February 2021 (the 4 February announcement; Bugara and Indah; the recovery).
5. Fort Wayne Children's Zoo news releases, April 2016 and the zoo's current published record (the cooperative-program and conservation-partner counts); Peggy Werner, "Children's Zoo Season Opens April 30," Northwest Quarterly, spring 2022 (the $350,000 conservation year).
6. The zoo's compiled history, via the Local Animals section of this record (Bill the lion, euthanized 6 April 2016).