 " Pattycake " was born on September 3 , 1972 , to western lowland gorilla parents Lulu and Kongo at the Central Park Zoo . Lulu and Kongo first arrived at the zoo on May 11 , 1966 . At the time , it was thought that Lulu wasn 't mature enough to conceive , so when Lulu gave birth to Pattycake at the age of 8 , it came as a surprise . Up until the time Lulu gave birth , it had been very difficult to get captive gorilla mothers to raise their young in zoos because the babies would either be rejected by the mother or they would be taken away by the handlers . Pattycake was the first gorilla successfully born in captivity in New York . 
