Jane Goodall, whose name at this point is a metonym for “definitive primate expert,” has weighed in on the Cincinnati Zoo’s decision to fatally shoot Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla, after a child fell into his enclosure on Saturday. Her decree?
On Saturday, the Cincinnati Zoo shot and killed a 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe to protect a four-year-old boy who’d fallen into the animal’s enclosure. Now, people who evidently would have preferred to see a toddler die in Harambe’s place are angrily threatening the boy’s mother on Facebook. Except, displaying…
Jelani, an 18-year-old gorilla at the Louisville Zoo, is really into smartphones. A video was captured of a zoo visitor showing pictures to the primate. What exactly was on this young man’s phone that he was happily sharing with his chill gorilla bro? No nudes, but pictures of other gorillas, of course!
Welcome to Would U?, an academic forum in which I share my gross crush of the week and ask if you, too, would bang that person.
Happy Birthday to Gladys the baby gorilla! She turns one today and to mark the big day, she got a pretty pink birthday cake.
Behold the majestic lowland ape. Marvel at his strength, his wildness. His complete inability to get along with ladies.
Here's a video out of Israel's Ramat Gan safari park where two female gorillas — Anya and Lia — have both recently given birth to teeny-tiny cubs. You guuuuuuuuys, these babies are so clingy and wrinkly that I can hardly take it. And did you see the part where one of the moms pats her baby on the head? It's like…
Hey, how about some slightly heartwarming news on this day of incomprehensible crap? After one of their companions was ensnared by a hunter's trap in Rwanda, it seems that young endangered gorillas are getting the last laugh. Or, uh, last terrifying jungle scream. Conservationists say a trio of juveniles in Rwanda has…
Zookeepers regularly administer basically the same hormonal birth control to gorillas. Findings from a limited sample show this makes female gorillas a little randy while menstruating. The more you know!
Lulu, who rose to fame in 1972 after delivering the Central Park Zoo's first baby gorilla, died of a seizure at her retirement habitat. The beloved gorilla had 10 children and several grandchildren, and at 46, she was relatively old.
[London, October 27: First-time mother Mjukuu with her newborn baby boy, the first gorilla born in the London Zoo in 20 years. The as-yet unnamed little guy will grow up to become a 350-pound silverback gorilla. Image via AP.]
Five years ago, conservationist Damian Aspinall bonded with a male gorilla named Kwibi, who he soon after released into the wild. In this amazing video, Aspinall finds his former friend and they commence cuddling. Click through to watch. [BuzzFeed]
• A math professor from the UK recently created the "fiancee formula," which supposedly predicts the best time for a man to propose. Although it was created for men, the Daily Mail says it could equally apply to women. •
[Berlin, January 22. Image via Getty]
• Maine officials announced today that opponents of the state legalizing gay marriage have gathered enough signatures to put the issue to a vote in November. Expect a heated battle in the next two months. •
A Minnesota police officer is in trouble after security-camera footage showed him feeding pop-tarts to gorillas at the Como Zoo. Although they're not sure whether the gorillas, Schroeder, Gordy and Togo, actually ate them. [via BoingBoing]
[Muenster, Germany; August 17. Images via Getty]
Just like certain reality show contestants, female gorillas apparently use their feminine wiles not just to get pregnant, but to keep their men away from the competition.
• This amazing (and stylish) Australian "supergran" is 83 years old and is still working as a yoga instructor. She teaches up to 11 classes a week. •
More evidence that captivity might mess up animals: 30% of zoos in one survey said their gorillas killed and ate local wildlife, even though wild gorillas seem to subsist on plants and bugs. [Economist]
