The Alipore zoo’s most famous resident turned 34 on Wednesday. The birthday of Babu, a chimpanzee, was celebrated in style.
The enclosure was decked out with flowers. A ‘best wishes’ board was set up for visitors to post signed messages for Babu.
A curated lunch for the birthday boy included a dozen fruits and lettuce.
True to his nature, Babu hopped, skipped and jumped around his enclosure.
His antics drew loud cheers from a crowd that gathered outside. He then sat for his feast like a king. There was more than one cake.
The one for Babu was a fruit cake.
Two other cakes were distributed among guests and visitors.
The visitors included actors Sohini Sengupta and Saptarshi Moulik, who adopted Babu two years ago, and Mir Afsar Ali and Swastika Mukherjee.
A video posted by Mir on the zoo’s Facebook page had garnered over four lakh views by Wednesday evening.
“People are saying Babu is my son. He is not. He is my brother. I have always been fascinated by chimps.... More people should come forward and adopt animals,” Sengupta told The Telegraph later on Wednesday.
“We want his (Babu’s) birthday celebration to be a shout-out to more adoptions,” said a zoo official.
Babu, born in Germany in 1988, was brought to Chennai’s Arignar Anna Zoological Park a year later with his partner Rani.
The two were brought to Alipore zoo in 1998. Rani died in 2011. Babu’s birthday celebration was planned by Asis Kumar Samanta, director of the zoo.
