In both cases, gorillas rushed to their aid. There have been two other reported instances of human boys falling into gorilla enclosures. A gorilla could potentially harm a human child without any intent to do so. There are, after all, no stories of gorillas attacking human children.ĭid zoo officials have to shoot Harambe? It is not surprising that they took every precaution they could to ensure that little Isaiah wasn’t hurt. Gorilla males, in short, are kind, gentle and loving towards young primates in their troop. When Frank joined the group in the outdoor enclosure, he cleaved to Paul Donn, a gentle giant with a clear and deep affection for his young follower. Rejected by his mother shortly after birth, Frank’s start in the world was uncertain. PD’s head was the size of Frank’s whole body. I’ve spent many an afternoon watching a patient silverback gorilla play the role of a jungle gym to scrambling youngsters who climb all over him.One of my fondest memories is witnessing the San Diego Zoo silverback named Paul Donn gently reaching up with one enormous finger to tickle the belly of young Frank, a nursery-reared male that lay in the grass near Paul Donn’s head. Indeed, among the apes, gorillas have the most “fatherly” reputation of all. The silverback male is a benevolent leader, with extremely rare bursts of aggression in response to perceived threats to the safety of his troop or a marauding gorilla male intent on taking his female troop-mates from him. In nature, a silverback male lives with a group of females that produce offspring he has sired. A gorilla would not likely recognize a small human child as a threat. It is extremely unlikely that Harambe meant to be aggressive towards Isaiah. When Harambe’s behavior was interpreted to be aggressive, he was shot and killed by zoo personnel - in earshot of thousands of zoo visitors as well as the other gorillas in his extended family. Harambe’s genes were considered essential in helping to conserve a critically endangered species that we are charged with protecting, but non-lethal force was not used. zoos, when a 3-year-old human child named Isaiah fell into the moat at the Cincinnati Zoo and Harambe picked him up. Last weekend we lost Harambe, one of 150 western lowland gorilla males living in U.S. I long ago surmised that were I to ever fall into an ape enclosure, the most likely safe haven would be one that housed gorillas. ![]() The sheer surprise of having a human land at their feet would likely prompt an aggressive outburst. ![]() Indeed, both of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are high-energy, fast-paced, dominance-obsessed and quick on the trigger. In the ape species that I study most closely, the bonobos, my odds of emerging unscathed would not be good despite their reputation as the peace-loving hippie cousins of the more violent chimpanzees. In earthquake-prone California, I’ve often wondered what would happen if I tripped and fell in or if the earth literally moved under my feet and I ended up at the bottom of the moat. I have spent thousands of hours over the last quarter century watching apes at zoos and parks - often in non-public viewing areas, from the precipice of the edge of a moat with no guardrail. It makes the King Kong portrayal poignantly unfair. Gorillas have long been known as the gentle, peace-loving, mostly vegetarian ape.
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