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:
“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“O, reason not the need! our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There’s something tragic in the fate of almost every person—it’s just that the tragic is often concealed from a person by the banal surface of life.... A woman will complain of indigestion and not even know that what she means is that her whole life has been shattered.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)