![]() ![]() In Chile, on May 18 this year, a man climbed into the big cat enclosure at the Santiago Metropolitan Zoo in an attempt to commit suicide. doesn’t hold the monopoly on incidents.Ģ. The handler survived after emergency surgery, but the elephant died during sedation. It tossed and then stabbed a handler with its tusks. As far back as March 1990, at the Lion Country Safari in Florida, an elephant died after reacting badly to being disciplined. Even the question of whether zoos should still exist has been brought up.ġ. Unfortunately, Harambe is far from the only zoo animal to pay for human mistakes, though it has managed to garner a lot of outrage on behalf of animals worldwide. Some blame the child’s parents, some blame the zoo, but everyone agrees that Harambe’s death was a tragedy. The Internet has been in an uproar over Harambe’s death. The child survived, though he received a concussion and multiple serious injuries. And the proof lays in the bullet that shot him dead.With the child at risk, and Harambe agitated by the screaming crowd, the zoo made the decision to shoot Harambe to save the child. He did not stand a chance at human forgiveness as soon as the child entered his enclosure. That protection was violated by the human public, at which point Harambe became unprotected and was more at risk than the child. The only protection that Harambe had that day was the zoo enclosure he was locked inside. In avoidance, gorillas often run past other individuals beating their chest, stand still on all four limbs biting their lips or they will hit a wall, tree, anything close and then run off. Even when threatened by other gorillas, an individual will choose to avoid confrontation more often than engage in harmful behaviors. They are rarely vocal and rarely dramatically expressive. They move their eyes, lips, and heads slowly to communicate through subtle movements. They are observers more than reactive aggressors. What I learned from studying captive Western Lowland gorillas at the Cleveland Zoo was that they are deep contemplators. Jennifer wrote in an email, "Harambe's movements and positions during the encounter presented nothing more than curiosity and protection for an unfamiliar child inside his environment. I don't know much more about the behavior of gorillas than what I read in texts and research papers, so I asked my friend Jennifer Miller some questions, as she has worked with these beings. Clearly, knowing about the behavior of each animal, as an individual with a unique personality, is essential for the well-being of every captive being. Harambe, like all other gorillas and numerous other zoo-ed animals, are highly intelligent and emotional beings who depend on us to respect and value their cognitive capacities that could well be put to use in potentially dangerous situations. They also could well be the people who could communicate the animal out of danger so it could be a win-win for all involved. It's these people "on the ground" who know the animals the best and who regularly communicate with them. Moving forward, caretakers, who are responsible for the day-to-day well-being of the zoo's residents and who form personal relationships with them, must be involved in preparing for emergency situations such as this. Why was the boy able to get under the rail, had zoo workers practiced the sorts of rescues brought on by these events, why wasn't Harambe tranquilized? Would a tranquilizer have been too slow-acting? ![]()
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