SAN DIEGO – A baby gorilla who had to be delivered through an emergency cesarean section and had some rocky early days has celebrated her first birthday at San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

The gorilla known as Joanne received a yam cake and a cardboard doll house for her birthday on Thursday. She was given her own special cake, that included pureed yams, while the rest of her troop shared a bigger one.

KSBW-TV reported that she still subsists mostly on the milk of her mother, 19-year-old Imani, but was seen digging into her cake.

The scene was less cheerful a year ago when Joanne had to spend her first 11 days in a veterinary hospital with pneumonia before she was reunited with her mother.


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