On April 13th, the world’s oldest gorilla celebrated her birthday with a vegetable feast at the Berlin Zoo.
Named Fatou, no one knows how she was taken from her home in Africa, but one story says she was brought to France by a sailor who later had to sell her to settle a bar debt.
The western lowland gorilla eventually arrived in Berlin via a French animal trader, and has far outlived any known member of her species from the wild.
The Berlin zoo cannot confirm the tale, but say that she did arrive in West Berlin Zoo in 1959 at the age of 2. Zookeepers naturally have no idea when she was born, but they picked April 13th as her birthday, and invited the Guinness World Records who recognized her as the world’s oldest gorilla.
“Fatou looks at you and looks right into your soul,” said Philine Hachmeister, a spokesperson for Zoo Berlin. “She has this dignity. She looks at you, and it’s like looking at your grandma. That’s what I’m thinking every time I go past her.”
She has more in common with a grandmother than just her demeanor. She doesn’t move very fast anymore, and suffers from a mixture of age-related maladies. Her eyesight is poor, she has arthritis, and she has to be careful about her blood sugar. This, unfortunately, precludes the routine eating of raspberries and blueberries which were her favorite food.
ZOO STORIES AND GORILLA BITES:
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- Surgeons Perform First-Ever Surgery for Critically-Endangered Monkey Weeks Before She Gave Birth
Her teeth have mostly fallen out, so zookeepers must cook the majority of her food to make it easier for her to eat.
Compared to the more famous mountain gorilla, the western lowland gorilla is smaller, weighing between 150 and 300 pounds. They still live in large family groups, and are mostly peaceful creatures with incredible social sensitivity, mourning the loss of family members and taking care of their most vulnerable.
“I always say that they reflect some of the best things that we love most about our own species,” Tara Stoinski, president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, told the Washington Post.
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