A Cumbrian wildlife park is celebrating the 60th birthday of one of its lar gibbons – who could be one of the oldest in the world.
Brian first arrived at Bassenthwaite’s Lake District Wildlife Park 20 years ago and has lived there happily since, beating his species’ life expectancy by over two decades.
He first appeared on zoological records in 1963 making him at least 60, but head keeper Vicky Jennings said it was possible Brian could be even older, as his exact birth date is unknown.
The gibbon has been confirmed so far as the oldest in Europe and may only be beaten as the oldest in the world by Gibby, another lar gibbon who is aged 62 and lives at the International Primate Protective League in America.
To celebrate Brian’s birthday, the Cumbrian park are throwing a party weekend for Brian and are encouraging the public to bring him cards which he will be given to play with.
Vicky said that the park’s team have made papier-mâché balloons for Brian and are putting up banners and will be giving him cardboard birthday cake boxes and presents on the weekend.
They’ve also made him a frozen ice-pop cake full of healthy treats including vegetables and fruit and are planning a happy birthday sing-a-long on Saturday May 20 and Sunday May 21 at 11.30am when Brian is given his cake.
The park’s resident chef is also working on creating cupcakes decorated with gibbon faces for visitors to enjoy.
It’s one of several other birthday events that Brian has had and Vicky said the team were excited for another weekend of celebrations.
Vicky, who has worked with Brian for seven years, said: “Mid-40s is a really good age for a gibbon, so 60 is really old, he’s like a 100 year old person, so he deserves a good celebration.
“He is definitely the oldest in Europe, it’s a bit of an achievement getting him to this ripe old age. But he’s got a good diet and a pretty healthy lifestyle as well as a nice enclosure.
“It’s just really nice having an animal that has thrived in this environment. People who have been coming for years recognise him and regularly ask about him. He’s definitely one of the big characters in the park.
“It would be interesting to find out if there are any others as old or older than Brian to see if there’s anything we can learn from each other about improving his life and care to see if we can have his kids reach that age as well.”
In 2015, Brian went viral on social media when a visitor posted a video of him running on YouTube which gained millions of views and led to gifs being shared across the internet.
He also has a son called Nobby and daughter called Sally who live with him in his enclosure.
Vicky said Sally and Brian will regularly groom each other while Nobby tends to be more of a show off and enjoys the attention of the public, which is apparently similar to how Brian was in his youth.
Vicky added: “Overall Brian is very good and he likes the people that look after him the most, he often comes over and turns around for a back scratch because as apes they groom each other a lot.
“He also likes sitting in the sunshine and swinging about and he does get a little bit of medication for stiffness from being old, he has it in a little bit of banana and he’ll take it gently from me. He’s pretty healthy really and he’s just like a little old person – but he can still be feisty!
“The main thing from our point of view if that Brian is still fine and enjoying himself. You don’t want an animal to be suffering for the sake of him getting to a world record, so the main thing is that he is happy and he is, he’s really enjoying himself.”
The park will be celebrating Brian’s birthday today, Saturday May 20 and tomorrow, Sunday May 21.
