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.
Colo was fond of baseball caps.
Colo on her 60th birthday, surpassed the median life expectancy for female gorillas in human care (37.5 years) by more than two
decades.
Colo became a mother of three, grandmother of 16, great-
grandmother of 12 and great-great-grandmother of three.
She died in her sleep January 17, 2017, less than a month
after her birthday.
