Turning 58 typically isn’t as big of a milestone as, say, 60, but when you’re a gorilla ... it’s worth celebrating.
Colo the gorilla was born Dec. 22, 1956. She’s the oldest gorilla living in a zoo and the first to be bred in captivity.
Colo is a western lowland gorilla, which is an endangered species. The average age of one of Colo’s wild counterparts is 35, according to National Geographic.
The Columbus Zoo will live stream Colo’s celebrations, which, like any good birthday, involves cake.
The cake is made of apple sauce, peanut butter and carrots. It'll all be topped off with Greek yogurt frosting. Delicious and healthy.
When Colo came into the world, it was no monkey business. The Columbus Dispatch found old news reports that Colo was found on the floor, still in her amniotic sac, a few weeks before her mother’s due date.
“[A part time keeper] ... grabbed the baby, broke the sac and revived her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, according to news reports at the time.”
With all of Colo’s years comes more family, and with more family come more generations ... Colo has a lot of gifts to get this holiday season.
“You guys, she has 16 grandkids, 10 great-grandkids and 3 great-great-great ... maybe I put one too many ‘greats’ in there. She’s a matriarch!” an ABC anchor said.
Colo has gone through a couple of names, too. Her name was Cuddles before the zoo held a national naming contest and she was renamed Colo, which is short for Columbus.
