COLUMBUS (AP) — Columbus Zoo and Aquarium officials say necropsy results for the world’s first gorilla born in a zoo indicate she probably died of a heart attack.
The 60-year-old Colo had been the country’s oldest known living gorilla, having surpassed captive gorillas’ usual life expectancy by two decades. She died in her sleep at the Columbus Zooin mid-January.
The zoo’s vice president of animal health tells The Columbus Dispatch that age takes its toll on gorillas as it does with humans. Veterinarians had removed a malignant tumor from Colo, but the necropsy found no indication that the problem returned.
Colo was born at the zoo in 1956. She eventually became a mother of three, grandmother of 16, great-grandmother of 12 and great-great-grandmother of three.