Overview
- Fatou, who turned 69 Monday, kept her Guinness record as the oldest gorilla in human care.
- Keepers served a sugar-free spread of cherry tomatoes, beets, leeks and lettuce because high-sugar treats can harm an elderly gorilla.
- The Berlin Zoo houses her in a private enclosure and softens food as she has lost her teeth and lives with arthritis and some hearing loss.
- Western lowland gorillas often reach 35 to 40 years in the wild, so her age far exceeds the norm.
- Guinness reports a Marseille bar-tab barter as her path to Europe, though the zoo says the tale remains unverified.