Fatou, the world’s oldest gorilla living in captivity, celebrated her 69th birthday on Monday with a feast of cherry tomatoes, beets, leeks and lettuce at the Berlin Zoo in Germany. She didn’t get the traditional birthday cake because sugar isn’t healthy for aging primates. Fatou, a western lowland gorilla, arrived in what was then West Berlin in 1959. She was believed to be about two years old at the time, though her exact birth date isn’t known. April 13th was designated as her birthday. Gorillas can live around 35-40 years in the wild, longer in captivity. Fatou became the zoo’s oldest resident in 2024, following the death of Ingo the flamingo. The bird was believed to be at least 75 and had lived at the zoo since 1955. Fatou was likely born in the wild in western Africa, but the story goes that a French sailor took her out of Africa and bartered her to cover his bar tab in Marseilles, France. A French animal trader then reportedly sold her to the zoo. These days, Fatou lives in an enclosure of her own and prefers to keep her distance from the zoo’s other gorillas in her old age. She’s lost her teeth and suffers from a touch of arthritis and hearing loss, but she’s still friendly with the zookeepers. Still, she can be a bit stubborn, but at 69 years old, she’s earned it.
