People go ape over gorilla's birthday
Bring out the bananas, baby.
It's party time at the zoo.
Saturday's second birthday party for Tumani, the gorilla, brought a human touch to the primate world, with gifts, songs and treats.
It also brought out the monkey in the human party guests.
Kids pressed faces against the glass, made loud noises, jumped from pane to pane - but, fortunately, stopped short of swinging from the crepe paper festooning the area.
After ignoring a boisterous round of "Happy Birthday," Tumani ate a bran muffin disguised as a cupcake and drank sugar-free Kool-Aid.
Then the pint-sized gorilla chewed the empty paper cup, twirled orange crepe paper and swung from the rafters in one swoop.
It was her party, so she could show off if she wanted to.
"She's past the toddler in human development," Cheyenne Mountain Zoo spokesman Sean Anglum said. "She rides on the other females. She's getting away from mom more, interacting with adults."
Tumani's hefty dad, Rafiki, hunkered over a box of cereal while her protective mom, Asha, stared down the crowd of humans.
"This kind of raises the bar on birthday parties for my children," said April Montgomery, whose son, Dakota, turns 4 on Tuesday.
Dakota liked the part about "no napkins" and "swinging from something."
He wants better presents but will probably want to play the same games as Tumani, his mom said.
Three-year-old Makayla Morgan was spellbound by the family of gorillas, who were much bigger than the toy primates at home she calls "my guys."
Makayla brought a bag of dried fruit for the birthday girl.
Other people brought gorilla gifts of dry cereal and unwaxed cups, some colorfully wrapped like real presents.
Tumani's party kicked off the "Year of the Gorilla," a United Nations effort to raise money for primates threatened with extinction from disease, hunting, deforestation and pet capture.
According to the zoo, a report released last August by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and other groups warned that nearly half of the world's 634 species and subspecies of primates are threatened with extinction from human activity.
Saturday's human activity posed no threat to the gorillas, who weren't fed the people treats of sugary cupcakes or the bananas that can cause diseases in primates.
The zoo will be collecting gorilla gifts all year. Items include: burlap, unwaxed paper cups, dried fruit, dry cereals, frozen mixed vegetables and PVC pipes.
Frozen veggies to hone foraging skills are an educational toy for Tumani, who is obviously not your typical 2-year-old.
