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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

News & Record (Greensboro, NC), November 5, 2000
November 5, 2000, Sunday

KWANZA DOING WELL AT CHICAGO ZOO

Kwanza, the young male gorilla who instantly became a visitor favorite at
the N.C. Zoo following his birth in 1989, is doing well in his new home at
the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and settling in socially with the other
gorillas at the zoo's Great Ape House.

There was even a celebration for his first birthday - the first ever held
for an animal at the zoo - featuring a birthday cake made of apples,
bananas, grapes, raisins, celery, carrots and other fruits and vegetables.
Human party-goers got to sample a special gorilla fruit salad themselves,
and the Southern Piedmont Children's Choir was on hand to sing ''Happy
Birthday'' to him. Visitors, particularly children, brought birthday cards,
which hung on a special display in the lobby of the African Pavilion,
Kwanza's home.

Always one for a celebration, Kwanza was also feted with a going-away party
on his departure to Chicago in March 1998. A cake-shaped Jello mold filled
with fruit was presented to him and his two exhibit mates.