Jojo the gorilla has spent his life alone, and his carers are still searching for a companion

A male gorilla named Jojo is living alone at a sanctuary in Gabon. Captured by poachers as an infant, Jojo has spent almost his entire life without the company of another gorilla, and his carers now want to find him a companion. Those involved say that search is not straightforward.

In 2015, an 11-year-old Jojo took his first tentative steps onto grass. Until that moment, he had spent almost his entire life in a tiny cage at a private zoo in Gabon. He was less than a year old, an infant clinging to his mother, when he was captured and sold; the poachers who took him had killed his family.

More than a decade later, Jojo is settled into a sanctuary but still lives alone. He has had no family since he was taken, and no gorilla friends. His carers at the Lekedi Foundation in Gabon want to find him a companion, possibly another rescued or zoo-bred gorilla, that he could live and bond with.

Professor Gillian Forrester of the University of Sussex is studying Jojo as part of research into great ape psychology and how to help rescued animals recover from trauma. In Forrester's words, he is 'probably the most extreme case of isolation I've ever seen in a great ape.'

Maxe Anaclet Makaba, head keeper at Lekedi, sees Jojo nearly every day. He says it is clear Jojo feels lonely, and that it can be seen in his eyes. According to Makaba, Jojo craves human interaction; he will even gather leaves to trade for a treat, as a way of interacting with people.

Eric Willaume, who runs the sanctuary, says Jojo calls out when women he knows well visit his enclosure and then leave, making the sounds that silverback males use to summon females in the wild. The report also says that when Jojo first arrived at the sanctuary after years in a small iron cage, he did not look directly at people.

According to the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, Jojo is one of more than 6,000 African primates estimated to have been bought or sold in the global trade in apes and other primates between 2000 and 2023. Thousands more are trafficked illegally for use as exotic pets, wild meat and traditional medicine.

Tony King, a conservationist with the UK charity the Aspinall Foundation who specialises in rehabilitating rescued great apes, says baby apes taken at an age when they understand their family was killed simply lose the will to live. King recalls rescuing two infant sister gorillas brought to a sanctuary in the Congo Basin, who clung to each other in a tight ball for about three days; he believes that is what kept them alive.

The Grace Center in Africa uses what it calls gorilla-led rehabilitation. When the team rescues a young gorilla from the pet trade, it places it with a group as soon as possible so it can socialise and essentially learn to be a gorilla. Jojo's case is different. According to Forrester, he is fully mature and showing signs of harmful, chronic stress.

In a new approach to studying anxiety and trauma in apes, Forrester has used a thermal camera to film Jojo's face, allowing her to monitor blood flow. The images show a persistently cold nose. When a primate is stressed, blood flow to the eyes and ears increases and the nose becomes temporarily colder; in Jojo's case, this 'nasal dip' does not seem to recover, a sign of a disrupted stress response.

Dr Katie Fawcett of the Grace Center says forming social relationships is essential for an animal to be considered for release into the wild, which is the ultimate goal of Jojo's keepers. Dr Robin Morrison of the University of Zurich, who studies the social lives of mountain gorillas, found in a recent study that female mountain gorillas seek out females they know, even after many years apart, when joining a group. Morrison says a big part of a gorilla's normal social life is simply sitting together quietly and sharing space, but Jojo has never had the chance to sit quietly with another gorilla.

No one knows how Jojo would react to a companion. Moving an animal from an accredited zoo would be a decision for an international committee, based on genetics, health, personality and compatibility. Any introduction would be done very carefully, perhaps by first giving each animal an object carrying the other's scent. Forrester has contacted a number of accredited zoos, but those discussions have fizzled out. In her words, there are no clear processes in place for these kinds of translocations. The international rules are designed for breeding programmes, not for reintroductions into the wild or for finding companions.

Tony King, however, believes Jojo, who is probably in his 20s and has reached maturity, may be too late to bond with other gorillas. He says Jojo's situation is unique but that he is probably best where he is, and that introducing him to another animal could, ironically, cause him more stress. Morrison notes that about a third of adult male gorillas are solitary in nature, dispersing after adolescence and spending much of their lives alone. But Jojo was forced into solitary confinement as an infant, so Morrison believes he is probably both traumatised and lonely. In the wild, gorillas move together, find food together and sleep together. Keeper Makaba sums up what his carers want: 'It would be good for him to have a companion. Because being alone is like being cut off from the world - it's like being in prison.'