One of the world’s oldest known gorillas celebrated her 58th birthday Thursday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Vila is believed to have been born in October 1957 in the Congo. After arriving in the United States, she was hand-raised at the San Diego Zoo and later moved to the Safari Park, where she has lived since 1975.
Vila is the matriarch of five generations, and she has served as a surrogate mother for several hand-raised western lowland gorillas during her lifetime.
“She’s been a really important individual in this troop,” said animal keeper Peggy Sexton. “Right now we have eight gorillas in this troop — the littlest one is about a year and a half, up to Vila who is 58, and they all interact great, and it’s very much like a normal troop you’d find in the wild.”
The troop includes an adult male silverback, four adult females, two young males and one young female who made international news when she was delivered last year via Caesarean section.
The seven other gorillas in the troop celebrated with Vila, enjoying enrichment items ranging from a cardboard zebra to messages written in peanut butter, streamers and an ice cake.
Vila’s attention went to smaller ice cupcakes that contained frozen fruit and were frosted with pureed banana and sweet potatoes. She also got to eat one of her favorites — popcorn.
Safari Park officials said that Vila is in excellent health despite her age. While she’s slowed down, she still plays with the young male gorillas, Frank and Monroe.
She has had no recent health issues and is given a daily vitamin, medicine for arthritis and a baby aspirin, for preventive measure, according to the animal keepers.
There are three other western lowland gorillas close in age to Vila — one at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio that was born in December 1956, and one each at the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas and at the Berlin Zoo in Germany, both estimated to have been born in 1957.
— City News Service
