Gorilla fans await word of Ndume’s return to Cincinnati Zoo

CINCINNATI (AP) — Gorilla fans in Cincinnati are awaiting word about the return of a 37-year-old male silverback gorilla.

Cincinnati Zoo officials said they wouldn’t provide an update until Ndume is safely back at the zoo, where he was born.

The Gorilla Foundation in California was under federal court order to transfer Ndume on Thursday for a flight to Ohio.

He was loaned in 1991 to be a companion for Koko, the gorilla famed for learning sign language. Cincinnati Zoo officials sought Ndume’s return after Koko died last June.

The Gorilla Foundation contended the transfer would harm Ndume. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco ruled in February that the gorilla should be returned , and recently wrote it was time to end delays.

The foundation says it’s sad Ndume is moving .