World Celebrates With Oldest Gorilla As Turns 65-Years-Old

A baby gorilla named “Fatou,” a western lowland gorilla was brought to the Berlin zoo back in 1959. She was brought in by a sailor who tried to use the gorilla to pay his tab at a pub in Marseille, France. She was then transported to Europe, where she was eventually purchased by the zoo. And now, 65 years later, the Guinness World Records says that Fatou is currently the oldest living gorilla in captivity!

Just recently the world celebrated with her as she turned 65 years old. And her birthday was made special as she celebrated it at the Berlin Zoo, surrounded by her carers who love her so deeply..

On April 13, 2022, Berlin Zoo made sure that Fatou had a lovely celebration. They are so proud of having Fatou in their care that they posted an update of her birthday celebration on Instagram.

The Berlin Zoo wrote: “Our Gorilla lady is celebrating her 65th birthday today, making her the oldest Gorilla in the world. The traditional birthday cake could not be missing this year either. The birthday meal is always something very special for Fatou.” They even made Fatou a very special cake decorated with everything that she loves, berries and fruits which they formed into the numbers “65.”

The video of her birthday celebration was posted by the Guinness World Records on their Instagram page and it immediately went viral!

Along with the video is this caption: “Oldest living gorilla in captivity – Fatou celebrated her 65th birthday this week!”

People on Instagram gave Fatou their birthday wishes. One commenter wrote: “Happiest of Birthdays dear one! And many more!!!” This person wrote: “Happy Birthday Fatou! Health and long life.” A third commenter posted: “The fact that she is this old shows she is clearly being well taken care of and looked after.”

Fatou’s 65th birthday is very special for so many reasons.

You see, gorillas usually live to be only about 50 years old when in captivity. And their lifespan in the wild is only believed to be an average of 35 years.

BBC Wildlife Magazine states that the “The western lowland gorilla is the most numerous of the four subspecies, with population estimates often cited at 100,000-200,000. However, due to their dense, remote habitat, no one knows for sure how many exist. The least numerous is the cross river gorilla, which is confined to scattered areas of forest in Nigeria and Cameroon, and is thought to number no more than 300 individuals.”

Gorillas are very intelligent animals. Unlike the chimpanzees, they don’t use tools to survive in the world. But the wild gorillas have been reportedly seen using sticks to gauge water depth, bamboo as their ladders to help infants climb, and some were even spotted using sticks to eat ants to prevent themselves from being stung.

There might still be a lot of them in the wild where the leopards and crocodiles are their predators, however, we all know that humans are the greatest threat to their populations.

Currently, the most serious risks to gorilla populations include habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, illness transmission from people, as well as civil wars and political problems that affect their natural environment. All of these are sadly caused by humans.