Massa (1930 – 30 December 1984) was a male
gorilla
Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four ...
who reached the age of 54 years. At the time, this was the oldest gorilla ever recorded, though later individuals would eventually surpass that record.
Massa was born in the wild in
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...
. He was shipped to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
at an early age and his first owner was
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
eccentric Gertrude Lintz. In 1935, after accidentally spilling water on Massa, which startled him severely, Lintz decided to sell him to the
Philadelphia Zoo
The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, is the first true zoo in the United States. It was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its openi ...
.
NY Times, 54-YEAR-OLD GORILLA, OLDEST IN CAPTIVITY, DIES IN PHILADELPHIA, UPI, January 1, 1985
In his prime, Massa weighed 400 lbs (181 kg).
Massa lived at the zoo until his death from a stroke on 30 December 1984, following a special birthday party held by the zoo, complete with a special cake and a live dixieland
Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ...
band. He was buried within the grounds of the zoo.
The 1997 film '' Buddy'' was based on the life of Massa (with some elements from the life of another of Lintz's gorillas, Gargantua
''The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel'' (french: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua ( , ) and his son Pantagru ...
, who was known at the time as Buddy).
See also
* List of individual apes
This is a list of non-human apes of encyclopedic interest. It includes individual chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons that are in some way famous or notable.
Actors
* Bam Bam, an orangutan, played Precious on the soap opera ...
References
*Milwaukee Public Museum Exhibit: Samson Remembered
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Notes
External links
*
youtube, Massa the Gorilla
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massa
1930 animal births
1984 animal deaths
Individual gorillas