In 2015, a young male gorilla named Jojo took his first tentative steps onto grass.
Until that moment, the 11-year-old ape had spent almost his entire life in a tiny cage at a private zoo in Gabon, after being taken from the wild as an infant. His family had been killed by the poachers who took him.
More than a decade later, Jojo is settled into a sanctuary – but he still lives alone. He hasn't had a family since he was taken, or indeed any gorilla friends.
Jojo's carers at the Lekedi Foundation in Gabon want to find a companion - possibly another rescued or zoo-bred gorilla – that Jojo could live and bond with. But finding him a friend - and bringing them into his life - is not straightforward.
"He's probably the most extreme case of isolation I've ever seen in a great ape," says Prof Gillian Forrester from the University of Sussex, who is studying Jojo as part of research into great ape psychology and how to help rescued animals recover from trauma.
Jojo was less than a year old – an infant clinging to his mother – when he was captured and sold.
Most gorillas spend the first 14 to 19 years of their life in an embedded family unit but he was kept completely…
