Gorilla Beings, Human Beings And Zoos
In 1960, Dr. Deets Pickett, gorilla hunter, transferred nine baby gorillas from Cameroon to the United States. He described the journey from Africa as a harrowing ordeal, with the infant gorillas arriving "half-dead from cold, respiratory ailments and lack of motherly love." Pickett continues: "I got eight baby gorillas in Yaounde, Cameroon... . The youngest were grieving for their mothers, who had been killed by the natives. At Douala on the seacoast ... all collapsed with heatstroke and one died. At Paris, where it was cold, two more died of pneumonia. When we arrived in New York, five were unconscious, Hibou nearly dead." For the next flight from New York to St. Louis, "two of the baby gorillas rode with Dr. Pickett in the cabin . . . the other two, moaning and grumbling, were carried, crated, in the cargo hold."
One of the gorillas to survive capture and transfer to the United States, was sold to the Memphis Zoo for approximately five thousand dollars. Six years later, this male gorilla named Timmy, was sold again and transferred from Memphis to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Over the years, he showed little interest in females, despite several introductions arranged by zookeepers. Eventually, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums suggested that Timmy should be transferred to the Bronx Zoo in New York City, where he would have access to four females and hopefully produce the offspring that would help ensure the continued existence of his species.
Les Fisher, then chairman of the Gorilla Species Survival Plan, justified the move: "We have to be careful to keep the breeding stock healthy.... If we're not careful, we'll end up with father gorillas breeding with daughters, and that would hurt the breed. That's why we were happy when we learned that Timmy, a handsome specimen born in the wild, could be used to breed."
The decision to move Timmy sparked a strong reaction from animal rights groups concerned with Timmy's emotional welfare. They took their protests to court, suing Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and seeking a restraining order to keep Timmy in Cleveland. The suit failed. The federal judge found that the concern over humane treatment in transit was adequately addressed by the zoo's compliance with the law. One hour after the court decided in favour of the zoo, Timmy left for the Bronx, accompanied by two veterinarians, two keepers, and the zoo director.
Upon his arrival at the Bronx Zoo, Timmy underwent a gradual protocol of quarantine and introduction to females. Dan Wharton, then Bronx Zoo curator and gorilla survival plan coordinator, explained the art of gorilla matchmaking: "We will slowly introduce him to a female by letting them see one another, though they will be separated. When he is ready to touch her, we will proceed”.
Less than two years following his arrival at the Bronx Zoo, Timmy produced his first offspring. Over the next several years, he bred prolifically. As a result of Timmy's robust reproduction, he soon "went from being a totally unrepresented founder into one that was slightly over-represented." Wharton explained that "keeping him in a reproductive group, from a genetic management point of view, did not make sense”. So, in 2004, Timmy was transferred to a non breeding area in Louisville Zoo.
To celebrateTimmy’s 50th birthday in 2009, Louseville’s mayor officially declared January 17th as ‘Timmy the Gorilla Day'.
In 2013 Timmy’s twelve surviving offspring, including a set of twins, all born at the Bronx Zoo, resided in the Bronx, Boston, Omaha, and Detroit zoos. Two of Timmy's grandchildren, M'Domo and Sia, were still in the Bronx, while a third, Zola, had been moved to Calgary."
Over the years, animals, alive or dead, have been presented in the context of serving the needs of human beings as:
pets;
natural curiosities;
spiritual icons;
public entertainers;
traded economic assets ;
specimens for education and research;
captive breeding stock;
other beings with cultural rights.
The big paradox of human/animal relationships is that human beings are implicated as the prime cause for the destruction of all nature's other beings, yet human beings have the exclusive power to prevent this destruction through their institutionalization of care in zoos. This highlights the role of zoos as places of care and stewardship, preserving genetic diversity in captivity unchanged for future use. However, zookeepers are constantly making reproductive choices for their animals; which of them will be held captive, which will be sustained and which will be left to expire in the wild. This raises the moral question of gorilla rights. In particular, if they had a say in their future, would gorillas in captivity accept their role as breeding stock under a human conservation regime? Is zoo care an acceptable alternative for the loss of the complex social structures of gorilla’s lifetime bonds, forged between distant relations that have striking parallels to traditional human societies?
public entertainers;
traded economic assets ;
specimens for education and research;
captive breeding stock;
other beings with cultural rights.
The big paradox of human/animal relationships is that human beings are implicated as the prime cause for the destruction of all nature's other beings, yet human beings have the exclusive power to prevent this destruction through their institutionalization of care in zoos. This highlights the role of zoos as places of care and stewardship, preserving genetic diversity in captivity unchanged for future use. However, zookeepers are constantly making reproductive choices for their animals; which of them will be held captive, which will be sustained and which will be left to expire in the wild. This raises the moral question of gorilla rights. In particular, if they had a say in their future, would gorillas in captivity accept their role as breeding stock under a human conservation regime? Is zoo care an acceptable alternative for the loss of the complex social structures of gorilla’s lifetime bonds, forged between distant relations that have striking parallels to traditional human societies?
These complex ‘social tiers’ define gorilla freedoms in the wild.
A new view of the place of gorilla beings in human evolution has come from over six years of data from two research sites in the Republic of Congo, where scientists have documented the social exchanges of hundreds of western lowland gorillas. They spend most of their time in dense forest, and it can take years for them to adapt to humans. To collect reliable data, research teams set up monitoring platforms by swampy clearings, where gorillas gather to feed on the aquatic vegetation. In this primeval ecosystem science has recorded the lives of known individuals from dawn to dusk over many years.
A new view of the place of gorilla beings in human evolution has come from over six years of data from two research sites in the Republic of Congo, where scientists have documented the social exchanges of hundreds of western lowland gorillas. They spend most of their time in dense forest, and it can take years for them to adapt to humans. To collect reliable data, research teams set up monitoring platforms by swampy clearings, where gorillas gather to feed on the aquatic vegetation. In this primeval ecosystem science has recorded the lives of known individuals from dawn to dusk over many years.
Taking this work into account the researchers have suggested that some gorilla social bonds may be analogous to ‘old friendships’ and ‘tribes’ in humans. So it may well be that the origins of our own being is a product of the evolution of social systems stretching back to the common ancestor of humans and gorillas rather than arising from the "social brain" of hominins after they diverged from other primates. This deep perspective of the cultural ecology of gorillas cannot be accommodated within the narrow socializing confines of being held captive by human beings as breeding stock in zoos.
Irus Braverman, Zooland, (2013)
https://www.cam.ac.uk/gorillasociety
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