Life
Her mother rejected her at birth, and she was hand-raised by the zookeepers like a human child, dressed in clothing and fed from a bottle. When she was two she was introduced to Bongo, a 19 month old male from Africa, and on February 1, 1968, their first of three offspring was born, a female named Emmy, named by the zoo after the mayor of Columbus, M. E. "Jack" Sensenbrenner. The following two offspring were similarly named after awards; Oscar, born July 18, 1969, and Toni, on December 28, 1971.
On April 25, 1979, Columbus Zoo had its first third generation birth. The infant was named Cora, short for Central Ohio Rare Ape. On January 27, 1997, Colo's great-grandson Jontu was born. A birth at the Henry Doorly Zoo made Colo a great-great-grandmother in 2003.
Although Colo did not raise any of her own offspring, she reared her twin grandsons, Macombo II and Mosuba, from birth. Colo also acted as a guardian for her grandson, named J.J. after "Jungle" Jack Hanna with whom he shares a birthday. Since that time, there have been 12 gorilla offspring in the Columbus Zoo surrogacy program.
Colo has resided at the Columbus Zoo longer than any other animal in the zoo's collection. Colo celebrated her 50th birthday in 2006 with her keeper Gregory Moore with a chimps tea party. Colo and her progeny, four of which still reside at the Columbus Zoo, comprised almost one-third of Columbus Zoo's current gorilla collection as of 2007.
Colo is the oldest living gorilla in captivity, following the death of 55 year old Jenny in September 2008.
Read more about this topic: Colo (gorilla)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“School divides life into two segments, which are increasingly of comparable length. As much as anything else, schooling implies custodial care for persons who are declared undesirable elsewhere by the simple fact that a school has been built to serve them.”
—Ivan Illich (b. 1926)
“I do believe that the outward and the inward life correspond; that if any should succeed to live a higher life, others would not know of it; that difference and distance are one. To set about living a true life is to go on a journey to a distant country, gradually to find ourselves surrounded by new scenes and men; and as long as the old are around me, I know that I am not in any true sense living a new or a better life.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The ceaseless labor of your life is to build the house of death.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)