COLUMBUS (WCMH) — “Colo really put us on the map.  The Columbus Zoo, I really think, is there because of Colo,” says Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Hanna spoke with NBC4’s Ellie Merritt in his first sit-down interview since Colo’s death on January 17^th, 2017.

Hanna hasn’t been at the Columbus Zoo since Colo’s passing.  He is on a speaking tour across the country and Ellie Merritt met up with him along the way.

“The thing that was special about Colo was that she was the boss, I think,” said Hanna.

“The Boss, Grande Dame, and The Queen,” were all nicknames Colo had earned over the years with her spirited personality.

“As a matter of fact, the first time I met Colo…she spit a little bit in my face.  That’s her….I said that’s nice, that’s really nice….she let me know that she was the boss,”  Hanna laughed as he looked back on the first time he met Colo.

Colo was a survivor from birth and made headlines as the first gorilla born in captivity.  Colo outlived expectations and celebrated her 60^th birthday at the Columbus Zoo on December 22^nd, 2016.  Just a few weeks later, Colo passed away in her sleep.

“When I go back I know I’ll make the mistake, I’ve got several tours that I have to do and I know I’m going to say ‘let’s go see Colo’…it’s like losing a parent.  When you lose a parent after 60 years or whatever, you just don’t get used to it overnight, and I won’t be used to it, no,” said Hanna remembering how much Colo meant to the Columbus Zoo.

“Celebrating an animal that has lived this long and taught us so much this long.  You can’t put a price on that…. people say to me, ‘what did you really learn about how old she got?’  Well that’s pretty simple I’m not a doctor, but we learned about eyesight.  We learned about arthritis,” said Hanna.

Colo inspired a new way of caring for gorillas at zoo and made the Columbus Zoo the first call for gorilla expertise.

In 1979, Hanna did something at the zoo that had never been done before.  He moved the gorillas outside, so they could enjoy a more natural habitat.  At first, the gorillas were scared and hesitant, but after a while they went outside and Hanna calls that one of the greatest moments of his career.

“All of a sudden that gorilla touched that grass and the whole family of gorillas came out there.  That was one of the greatest days of my life, and I’m sure Colo  ate it all up, with all of her kids and everybody out there jumping around.  They had a little pool for them and it was just the highlight of my life,” said Hanna.

Hanna says Colo’s legacy will live on at the Columbus Zoo.

“I’m going to put it before the board and I can’t see why we couldn’t name our new gorilla habitat in the years to come after Colo…..it is fitting, because she’s the one who made us,” said Hanna.

Colo’s family branched into four generations of 34 gorillas, including the birth of the zoo’s newest baby gorilla, J.J.