00:00Today we're at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park celebrating our 57-year-old gorilla's birthday. Her name is Vila.
00:20So Vila, she's one of the oldest known gorillas in the world. She's still in great shape and so she came out foraging as usual and took it all in. She was particularly interested in the checks, the tiny little things that she found in the grass and of course she loves her greens so she was eating those as well.
00:50And then she found a little ice cake and I guess she decided it was all for her so she really enjoyed that.
01:20So in typical fashion all the girls came out and starred for Jane. Of course they saw all kinds of extra special treats and they were all investigating and our little three-year-old Monroe did his usual check everything out and throw it into the moat. That's the most fun thing for him to do and he had lots to throw today.
01:38So the littlest member of our troupe, Joanne, who's just nearly eight months old, she got to enjoy the party as well. She had the most fun with a cereal box. She was standing on it and it held her weight. She didn't even collapse it.
01:53Not only is this a birthday celebration, it's enrichment and we do enrichment every day because the gorillas need to have their, you know, their physical, mental and emotional needs met.
02:14And so enrichment stimulates their brain and gets them looking and doing things they would do naturally in the wild, foraging and playing and discovering new things.
02:30Because Vila is one of the oldest known gorillas in the world, we don't know all that much about geriatric gorillas. We're learning from her and the other ones that are in her age grade.
02:41And so she is a very healthy, vibrant animal and she's teaching us a lot about how to manage older gorillas.
03:03So the gorillas generally come out at nine o'clock in the morning and that's actually the best time to see them because the keepers have just put all their enrichment out and their greens for the day.
03:10And so that's when they're most active. They come out of the house and they start looking for food right away.
