--- title: Gorilla Celebrates the Holidays By Eating Christmas Tree description: A popular gorilla at a Canadian zoo joined in on the holiday festivities Thursday by eating a Christmas tree. canonical: https://time.com/4161308/gorilla-christmas-tree-toronto-zoo/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-24T22:09:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:06.347Z og:title: Gorilla Celebrates the Holidays by Eating Christmas Tree at Toronto Zoo og:description: Merry Christmas to all creatures great and small og:url: https://time.com/4161308/gorilla-christmas-tree-toronto-zoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gorilla Celebrates the Holidays by Eating Christmas Tree at Toronto Zoo twitter:description: Merry Christmas to all creatures great and small twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Gorilla Celebrated the Holidays by Eating a Christmas Tree  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 24, 2015 10:09 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 24, 2015 10:09 PM UTC A gorilla at a Canadian zoo joined in on the holiday festivities Thursday [by apparently eating a Christmas tree](https://twitter.com/tozookeepers/status/680132599398969345). The 410-pound silverback named Charles appears to be picking his teeth with an evergreen tree bark in a photo his caretakers at the Toronto Zoo tweeted on Christmas Eve. “We all wish you Happy #Holidays and Charles does too,” Toronto’s zookeepers wrote on Twitter, along with the image. A gorilla named Charles appears on the zoo’s [website](http://www.torontozoo.com/babygorilla/?pg=AboutOurTroop), which notes the ape was born in West Africa in 1972 and arrived in Toronto in 1974\. The site described him as “shy and very peaceful” and internationally known. > [](https://twitter.com/tozookeepers/status/680132599398969345) Charles, the father of 15 gorillas, is now in his “golden years” and is less active than the other younger gorillas, according to the Toronto Zoo. But at least he still has some Christmas spirit in him. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4161308/gorilla-christmas-tree-toronto-zoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4161308/gorilla-christmas-tree-toronto-zoo/"},"headline":"This Gorilla Celebrated the Holidays by Eating a Christmas Tree","datePublished":"2015-12-24T22:09:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:06.347Z","description":"Merry Christmas to all creatures great and small","url":"https://time.com/4161308/gorilla-christmas-tree-toronto-zoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Canada"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4161308/gorilla-christmas-tree-toronto-zoo/","name":"This Gorilla Celebrated the Holidays by Eating a Christmas Tree"}}]}] ```