Leah the chimpanzee (May 15, 1974 – April 4, 2022) 

Zoo officials said, in an announcement made Monday, the
chimpanzee died in her sleep Sunday night. 

She is survived by her big sister Delilah, who turns 49 next
month, 50-year-old male Jackson and 53-year-old troop leader
Chloe.

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Colo died January 2017 at age 60 in the zoo where she was so
famously born. (Columbus Zoo and Aquarium)

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. She
Weighed 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.

Colo, who generated enormous public interest, went on to become a mother, grandmother, and in 1996, a great-grandmother to Timu, the first surviving
infant gorilla conceived by artificial insemination. Timu gave birth to her first
baby in 2003.

Packy (April 14, 1962 – February 9, 2017)

Packy was an Asian elephant at the 64-acre Oregon Zoo located in Portland,
Oregon. He was famous for having been the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years. At the time of his death, he was the oldest male Asian
elephant in North America. In July 2013, Packy was diagnosed with tuberculosis
and was euthanized today following the veterinarians’ decision that his TB was
was drug resistant.

Colo, the first gorilla to be born in captivity, was born at the Columbus, Ohio
zoo. Rejected at birth by her mother, zookeepers had to hand-raise Colo
much like a human child, by dressing her in clothes and giving her bottle of
formula. At the age of two years old,she was introduced to a 19-month-old
male from Africa called Bongo. The couple had three offspring, the first
on February 1, 1968, Emmy, a female, Oscar, born July 18, 1969, and
Toni, on December 28, 1971.

Colo is now the oldest living gorilla in captivity, following the death of 55-year-
old Jenny in September 2008.

 
  Photo taken during Colo’s 58th birthday party.

The Oregon Zoo, formerly the Washington Park Zoo is located in the 
city of Portland. It opened in 1888 after a private animal collector
named Richard Knight donated his animals. It is the oldest North
American zoo west of the Mississippi.

By 1894, there were over 300 animals in the zoo’s collection. In
1925, the zoo moved to the site of the present Portland Japanese
Garden, still within Washington Park. Its current site opened on
July 3, 1959.

Rosy the Asian elephant was acquired by the zoo in 1953.