MUMBAI, India – India’s only gorilla is lonely.

Even though Polo is 6 feet tall, dark-haired, bilingual and good-natured, the 36-year-old silverback gorilla is still single after a fruitless eight-year search.

“We have written to all major zoos in the world. We have tried everything,” said Vijay Ranjan Singh, the director of the zoo in Mysore, a city in southern India about 525 miles southeast of Mumbai.

Polo has been alone since 2000 when his mate, 46-year-old Sumathi, died.

Singh said that because gorillas are considered highly endangered, other zoos are reluctant to part with theirs. The Mysore zoo doesn’t want to send Polo abroad to find a friend because he is India’s only gorilla.

For the prospective mate, Singh says Polo is good-natured and responds to commands in both the local Kannada language and English.

“He is in fine health, but lonely,” Singh said. “After eight years, anyone would be.”

Man may be reimbursed for money mutilated by mice

JACKSON, Mo. – A bunch of mice turn out to be no match for the U.S. Mint.

A southeast Missouri man is expected to be reimbursed for about $1,000 in bills that had been eaten by rodents.

He had left the $20 bills in an unzipped vinyl bag on a desk at his home, and it was misplaced during the ice storm last winter and the flooding in March.

He eventually found the bag, and in August took it to First Missouri State Bank in Jackson in hopes of covering his losses.

Bank manager Michelle Johns said Wednesday she and two staffers picked through rodent droppings and bird feathers and reassembled the bills.

“With that mess, I didn’t know if we could do anything with it,” Johns said.

The U.S. Mint advised Johns that both sets of serial numbers printed on the bills must be complete to get reimbursement.

The mint will then issue the customer a check for the exact amount the money is worth.

From Associated Press reports