Last Saturday, we celebrated the births of my brother and his daughter. Like many families, we mistakenly believed the zoo to be an innocuous yet fun event for toddlers and their fathers.
Until we saw the zebra hung like a....well, like a horse....but that's a story best left to the annals of time. This story is about gorillas. Horrible, baby-killing gorillas.
If you look closely at the picture above, the loving gorilla mommy is cradling her infant. She was breastfeeding it, of course, and I took a picture to use if I ever get a chance to work in lactation again. But not long after i took this shot....
The baby-killing began.....
We were oohing and aaahing at the little family scene when one of the other baby-less gorillas came into view. She walked over to the mama gorilla and whacked her on the head. The audience took a collective step backwards. Then she grabbed the mama by the hair. The audience grew uncomfortable.
Then she grabbed the baby by the head.
Never let it be said that humans don't care about babies. The entire audience screamed. We were stuck behind the glass as the two gorillas fought over the baby, who looked as if it were about to meet its doom. I started to cover the eyes of my niece and nephew. I think they should save their first view of baby-killing for the evening news or the Internet - since beheading has gone mainstream, I'm sure baby-killing isn't far behind.
"Oh, look!" I heard shouted from somewhere. I had visions of the zookeeper dropping down by helicopter to stun-gun the still-struggling gorillas.
Instead, a daddy had come to the rescue.
The silverback streaked across the enclosure to bully the attacking gorilla away. The baby dropped to the ground, soon to be recovered by the mama gorilla, who sat rocking and caressing her baby. The silverback kept the attacker cornered for several minutes. Then he retreated to a safe distance to continue to watch.
Polo Dude tells me that infanticide is common among gorillas. I don't know about that. What I do know is that the entire scene was both terribly animal and remarkably human.
And I'm not so sure I'm ever taking children to a zoo again....
8 comments:
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why? why would they do that?
that picture, btw, is one of the freakiest things I've seen as of today. I was at a loss at what that black lump was until you told us.
I want to congratulate you on the new births, but....wow, what a way to mar peace of mind. I think I need some meds.
Male silverback = King Solomon, gorilla style?
*contemplates AGLU satire possibilities*
Wow, that is crazy! The poor little baby gorilla. That is interesting though, how human-like their behavior can be, isn't it?
Lianne begs the question: Why was she feeding her son to the lions in the first place?
How sad! Hope your little nephew and niece weren't emotionally scarred or anything. Sheesh, the zoo's a hostile place. No wonder they have glass now. That prevents them swinging baby humans around, or peeing on spectators. My mom was once hit directly in the eye by llama spit, if that'll make Lianne's son feel any better.
I was walking in the zoo one time (when I was like, five) and having a grand old time. I roared so loud, the lions and tigers went and hid in their respective corners, I scratched my armpits raw just to better the monkeys. And then, we went to the parrot section. I bought one of those little nectar cups and was immediately swarmed by the birds. The cup was promptly emtied and my parents decided that we should go get some lunch. As we walked towards the door, I looked up at a particularly noisy bird and opened my mouth to scream at it (competitive nature you know)when the loathesome creature pooped right into my mouth. No only that, but after it dawned on me that a bird had shat into my mouth, I had accidentally swallowed it.
I never screamed at birds again.
I see we all have zoo trauma. Those places need warning signs.
And it's noted that Lianne did not say she DIDN'T feed her son to the lions.
We only like the babies because they're flubsy. But we should take caution! Someday, all the flubsy animals are going to come at us with power tools, machetes and guns and take over!
Down with the flubsy! More power to human children killing human children!
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