Was It A Happy Birthday, Vila?

The San Diego Zoo celebrates the birthday of one of the world's oldest known gorillas

October 28, 1957.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president of the United States. The Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 had just become the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. David Lean's film The Bridge on the River Kwai was playing in theaters. And Vila, a Western Lowland gorilla, was born.

One of the three oldest known gorillas living today, Vila celebrated her 52nd birthday at the San Diego Zoo, where she is known as the "Grand Dame" of the gorilla troop at the zoo's Wild Animal Park. Her only daughter, Alvila, also resides at the park, as do several of her grandchildren, her great-grandson Frank and two great-great-grandchildren, Jamini and Ajari.

"Although she is 'up there' in age, Vila is in excellent health, has a good appetite and normal behavior," writes senior keeper Peggy Sexton on the zoo's blog.

"She does have some age-related issues, so she does get senior vitamins and medicine for arthritis, which works well: she has no trouble getting around. Living in Southern California helps as well, as the temperate climate is very easy on an aging gorilla, and even though she is missing a few teeth, corn on the cob is one of her favorite foods and she never misses a kernel."

Vila may be loved by her keepers and the public, but there is no way that a zoo can replicate life in the wild.

"Wild animals [belong] in the wild, not imprisoned in zoos," said actress Virginia McKenna after starring in the 1996 film Born Free, about a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub to adulthood, and released her into the wilds of Kenya.

"Freedom is a precious concept, and wild animals suffer physically and mentally from the lack of freedom captivity imposes," McKenna said. In 2003, she received an Order of the British Empire in 2003 for her work in behalf of captive animals.

Vila will not be as lucky as Elsa was. Vila will die a prisoner of the San Diego Zoo. No amount of birthday gifts will change that fact. And what will become of her large and growing troop? Will they also spend their entire lives in captivity?

In the wild, Western Lowland gorillas inhabit the forests of Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. There are between 150,000 to 200,000 estimated to be living in these areas.

But although life in the wild in rough -- the gorillas are under constant threat from Ebola, deforestation and poaching -- zoos are not the answer. The solution lies in a combination of concentrated effort towards stopping Ebola, deforestation and poaching.

Sexton writes, "We fully expect Vila to add years and years to the longevity record." But the question should not be, "How many more birthdays will Vila have?" It should be, "How many of Vila's birthdays have actually been happy?"

GET INVOLVED

• Support the Born Free Foundation
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare
• Learn more about zoos and what you can do to help animals in captivity
• Donate to Conservation International to help their fight to stop the slaughter of mountain gorillas
• Sign a petition to stop the bushmeat trade and hunting of primates
• Sign a Born Free Foundation petition urging Argentina's Lujan Zoo to stop allowing visitors to enter animal enclosures
  

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• L.A. Times Poll: Should Billy the Elephant Remain at the L.A. Zoo? (January 9, 2009)
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image: Xinhuanet