Text 12949, 116 rader
Skriven 2005-05-27 00:50:08 av Ed Hulett (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 12884 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
Ärende: Participation in this ech
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TIM RICHARDSON -> ED HULETT wrote:
 TR> On 05-25-05, ED HULETT said to JOHN HULL:

 JH>> There used to be an old silverback gorilla at the San Diego Zoo back
 JH>> when I lived there (maybe Tim can tell us if he's still alive).  They
 JH>> had an open air viewing area, and this majestic old bull gorilla would
 JH>> sit up on a mound and watch the people lined up along the railing
 JH>> watching him, and the ones who tried to get him to react somehow.  He
 JH>> would sit there stock still, scratching his ass once in awhile until the
 JH>> crowd started to lose interest, then he would stick his hand under his
 JH>> butt, take a dump in it, and nail some poor slob with two pounds of
 JH>> gorilla shit.  He seemed to particularly enjoy nailing some good looking
 JH>> female.  He would then roll around on the ground as if he were laughing
 JH>> his ass off at the stupid humans - and he probably was!


 TR> I don't think the one here now is the same one as that, but I remember
that
 TR> old guy. He was a riot.

 TR> Several years ago they altered many of the enclosures to give the animals
a
 TR> lot more room, and the Gorilla enclosure was one of them.  It would be
rather
 TR> hard for that silver back to do that anymore, as he'd have to throw it
across
 TR> a wide moat and almost twenty five feet in the air to get it on target.


 TR> Not long after they altered this enclosure, the sliver back and a female
were
 TR> in the enclosure one afternoon, and a young kid climbed up on the concrete
 TR> wall and was leaning over the railing, trying to see the bottom of the
wall
 TR> where it meets the water.


 TR> But you can't see it from there, because the wall tapers outward, and the
 TR> bottom edge is out of your sight. Its so the Gorillas can't climb the
wall,
 TR> and the water moat is yet another obstacle.


 TR> Anyway, the kid was leaning over the rail, lost his hold and fell into the
 TR> enclosure, landing at the edge of the water near the sliver back.


 TR> When he hit, his head hit the bottom which was about five or six inches
under
 TR> water at that point, and was knocked unconcious.


 TR> The silver back just sat there looking at the kid in the water, face-down,
and
 TR> continued to eat the fruit from the pile of food around him.


 TR> No sooner did the kid hit the water then the female jumped up from where
she
 TR> was sitting up near the access door, ran down to the water, pulled the kid
up
 TR> out of the water like she had hold of a baby Gorilla, carried him up to
the
 TR> access door the keeper used to enter the enclosure, laid him gently down
at
 TR> the door, moved quite a ways away and waited.


 TR> The silver back never made a move, just kept eating and taking all this
in,
 TR> like he was watching a play or something.


 TR> Now you'd think that someone would have just opened the access door,
stepped
 TR> in and picked the kid up, carried him out, and someone close the door
again.


 TR> But shit, no! The pathetic bastards turned the fire hoses on the Gorillas
and
 TR> drove them to an extreme corner of the enclosure, and held them there with
the
 TR> water, while the kid was removed.


 TR> I couldn't believe I saw that! The entire sequence of events was captured
by
 TR> someone who had a camcorder, and was filming the Gorillas when the kid
climbed
 TR> up on the retaining wall. They turned with the camera running to catch him
 TR> just as he lost his hold and fell in. So the whole thing was filmed.


 TR> I thought that was just pathetic. That female Gorilla obviously saved the
kids
 TR> life. He'd have probably drowned by the time anyone had gotten into the
 TR> enclosure and to the water where he was. My guess is if someone had just
 TR> opened the access door, stepped in, picked the kid up and carried him out,
 TR> neither Gorilla would have moved to stop them. For all the appreciation
the
 TR> female Gorilla was shown for her act of kindness. She gets fire-hosed!


 TR> That was un-fuckin'-real!

I remember seeing that on some tv show. I couldn't believe it either when they
turned the fire hose on the gorillas. The female was only acting out of
maternal impulses to save the kid. Neither of them showed any attempt to harm
the child. If that female gorilla hadn't pulled the child out of the moat he
would have drown.

Ed

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