Robert Golding, Who Brought Two Gorillas Aruna, Imade, Made Ibadan Zoo Popular, is Dead

A British man, Robert Bob Golding, who set up the University of Ibadan’s zoological garden and made it popular with two popular gorillas is dead.
Golding was said to have been invited to set up a zoo for the Zoological Department of the premier university in 1963 after which he brought in two traumatised gorillas which had been rescued in Cameroon.
The two gorillas, named Aruna and Imade, were the cynosure of zoo visitors for many years before the death of Aruna in 1995 and Imade in 2009.
An obituary of Golding, published by The Times on Saturday gave more insight into the life of this animal lover from childhood.
“Bob Golding’s mother had an inkling of her son’s future vocation when she opened the door of the grandfather clock at home and screamed at a snake slithering over its workings,” The Times Wrote
It went further to say that “The child spent all his spare time at the reptile house at Bristol Zoo and by the time he left grammar school he was ready for adventures in more exotic climes. He therefore wrote to Gerald Durrell. The naturalist and author did nothing to blunt the child’s unblemished optimism, writing back by return of post to inform him that he and his wife Jacquie would like to meet him.”
Erudite Nigerian publisher, and a witness to Golding’s adventures in Nigeria, Gbenro Adegbola, in his Saturday post on twitter handle, narrates how Golding came in and set up the zoo and made it popular in his 16 years of its supervision.
Adegbola wrote, “Animal lover and pioneer director of the University of Ibadan Zoo, from 1963-1979. He was born and grew up in Bristol. At age 19, in 1957, he joined as an assistant, the famed adventurer and animal curator, Gerald Durrell in an expedition.
“Together, they embarked on an animal spotting expedition round East and West Africa. That trip resulted in the bestselling book, A Zoo in my Luggage, by Durrell.
“In 1963, he was recruited by the University of Ibadan to develop its small animal collection used for teaching in the zoology department, into a proper zoo and a full fledged independent public service unit. He resumed at this assignment in Ibadan in September 1963 at 25.”
Adegbola recalled that Golding’s most famous acquisition for the zoo was in the following year after his arrival, when he took in two traumatised and abused young gorillas, that had been illegally moved into Nigeria from Cameroon and were covered in wounds. They were to be named Aruna and Imade.
Aruna in particular of the two, became so famous to kids of the 70s and 80s as visitors to the zoo threw at them coins and banana and other snacks for which the animals entertained.
“The pair became the star attraction of the zoo for well over the next three decades. Aruna died in grand old gorilla age, in 1995 & Imade in 2009. The UI zoo boomed under Bob’s sixteen year headship, not only on account of the gorillas but also his astute management and curation.
He totally threw himself into his job. At a time, he even hosted a regular TV programme for children, on Western Nigeria Television, WNTV in which ‘Uncle Bob’ introduced the kids to all sorts of interesting animal species.
He succeeded greatly in his mandate to transform the small, animal collection he inherited into a veritable wildlife park. At its height, the zoo under him, become “the most popular public attraction in Nigeria with 250,000 paying visitors a year,” per his own account.
Adegbola recalled that Golding married an Afican-American who was a teacher at Loyola College, Ibadan and later became the first female and Black Majesty’s Lieutenant of Bristol.
In his recollection, Adegbola said he was one of the kids selected to visit Golding at his flat on the campus of the university.
He said, “On a personal note, I remember as a child being part of a school group selected to visit his small flat on UI campus to see & learn about the collection of snakes he lived with. That left me traumatised for weeks & probably contributed to my strong aversion for snakes till now.”
Bob Golding, according to Adegbola, “passed on quietly of a heart failure in his hometown, Bristol aged 84, on 4th January 2022.”