On December 22, 1956, a baby gorilla named Colo entered the
world at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, becoming the first-ever
gorilla born in captivity. Weighing in at approximately 4 pounds,
Colo, a western lowland gorilla whose name was a combination
of Columbus and Ohio, was the daughter of Millie and Mac, two
gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa, who were brought
to the Columbus Zoo in 1951.
Before Colo’s birth, gorillas found at zoos were caught in the
wild, often by brutal means. In order to capture a gorilla when
it was young and therefore still small enough to handle, hunters frequently had to kill the gorilla’s parents and other family
members.
Mother Millie with her daughter Colo who died in 2017.
