Colossus

Colossus, originally named Tony, was a 500-plus pound silverback lowland gorilla who was raised on Benson's Animal Farm in Hudson, New Hampshire, from the mid-1960s to 1987 when he was purchased by the Gulf Breeze Zoo for $37,500.

He spent approximately six years as the local zoo's star attraction. Because he was born in the wild, officials believed the introduction of his genes would help prevent inbreeding among captive gorillas. Zoo officials later added that attempts to breed Colossus failed because a female gorilla, named Muke (pronounced MOO-key) was unable to conceive and would have little to do with Colossus.

As part of a cooperative breeding program, he was in 1993 transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo, because it had the nation's best record of breeding gorillas. During his thirteen years there, he was often in the company of three to eight female gorillas, and acting as a father figure to many gorilla babies, although he fathered none.

Colossus died of cardiac arrest on April 11, 2006 while under anesthesia for an emergency root canal operation.