Nipper Turns 55!
Written by: Scarlett Rockhold, Communications Manager at Zoo Knoxville
On June 1st Zoo Knoxville celebrated Nipper’s 55th birthday! This makes her one of the oldest white-handed gibbons in the country. The oldest recorded age of a white-handed gibbon is 56.9 years.
She recently received a wellness check and all of her results came back normal. Because of the great care she has received by her keepers and the excellent medical treatment by the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Nipper has outlived her life expectancy by almost 20 years and is in great health!
Some of Nipper’s favorite things include eating hard boiled eggs, sunbathing and opening up bags which is part of her regular enrichment. Her birthday this year was a beautiful sunny day, and she enjoyed getting to open up her birthday bag full of goodies.
White handed gibbons are an endangered species and by delivering 9 babies, Nipper has made an important contribution to maintaining a genetically diverse population. Make sure to visit Nipper on your next visit to Zoo Knoxville!