180 years of Zoo Berlin: Bobby

With good care, Bobby became the first gorilla in a zoo to grow up to manhood and captured the hearts of Berliners. On August 1, 1935, he died of appendicitis. As Zoo Berlin's first gorilla, he paved the way for many more silverbacks to have offspring here.

Bobby is still omnipresent in Berlin today - as a granite sculpture, he adorns the path to the Zoo's ape house and, since 1961, the Zoo Berlin logo. The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin also houses a dermoplastic of the animal, which was made after Bobby's death in 1935.

Would you like to find out more about the animal icons, historic places and exciting personalities of Zoo Berlin? Over the next few weeks, we will take you on a short journey through time. Every week until the zoo's official birthday at the beginning of August, you can expect a post with exciting facts from the last 180 years.