• Newsfeed

This Gorilla Celebrated the Holidays by Eating a Christmas Tree

1 minute read

A gorilla at a Canadian zoo joined in on the holiday festivities Thursday by apparently eating a Christmas tree.

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, 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.

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.

 

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com