It is getting so close to Christmas I thought I would spend a sovereign moment to talk about a certain birth.
Not THAT birth.
But the birth of Colo. She was the first gorilla born in captivity. It happened on this very date, December 22, 1956. This good girl entered the world right here in Ohio at the Columbus Zoo.
Colo was only 4 pounds at birth. As an adult, she would grow into a 350-pound large body. I should add she was a western lowland gorilla. There are three types of gorillas in all. The other two are eastern lowland and mountain.
The zoo people came up with her name as a combination of Columbus and Ohio — Colo. Cute. Colo was the daughter of Millie and Mac. They were two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa. Both of them were brought to the Columbus Zoo in 1951.
So, this may not seem like a big deal. But here is the deal. Before Colo’s birth, zoo gorillas were always caught in the wild. And the way they captured those gorillas often happened by brutal means.
Sadly to say, the gorillas were almost always caught while they were young, so they were still small enough to handle. But to do this, the hunters frequently had to kill the gorilla’s parents and other family members. You don’t read that on the placard at the zoo, now, do you? So to start breeding in-house was a much better solution.
A few words about our gorilla friends. They are peaceful and intelligent. Native to Africa. Vegetarians. Their only natural enemy is the humans who hunt them. The life span of a gorilla averages around 35 years in the wild and 50 years in captivity.
Her parents were not very good parents, so she was raised by the zookeepers. These days, animal researchers have made advancements in all of this. When a gorilla is captive, they’ve found ways to create a gorilla’s natural environment. So now, a lot of baby gorillas are raised by their mothers. There are also surrogacy programs if that doesn’t work.
Anyway, baby Colo was wildly popular with the public. She drew large crowds for a long time. And Colo went on to become a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her great-grandbaby, Timu, was the first surviving infant gorilla conceived by artificial insemination. That happened in 1996.
As for today’s populations of gorillas. Around the world, about 750 gorillas live in captivity. In the wild, there are an estimated 100,000 lowland gorillas (and far fewer mountain gorillas). Mountain gorillas are endangered right now.
And then? Our dear Colo?
She died in 2017. She was 61 years old. Good Colo. A miracle from her birth.
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“I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.”
― Aldo Leopold
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“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.”
― Albert Einstein
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“I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my way of
praying, as you no doubt have yours.”
— Mary Oliver
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Colo. The good baby girl
