Not sure it's helpful comparing this gorilla, in an unnatural environment with loads of noise around, to Dian Fossey's experiences - gorillas in their own environment, observed with utmost respect.
There are very good and insightful comments on FB by Captain Paul Watson. Here's the latest.
The Uproar Continues.
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
The uproar continues over the death of Harambe and rightfully so.
Some of the comments that I have received are extremely ignorant like the ones saying that the gorilla would have eaten the child.
Gorillas do not eat meat.
Back in 1986 a young boy fell into the gorilla enclosure in Jersey, (U.K.) The silverback there was named Jambo. He came to the boy and gently touched him and then stood back and guarded the boy while two zookeepers and a medic jumped in to retrieve the child. None of them men were attacked and the boy's injuries were from the fall, not from the gorilla.
For those who have expressed outrage at me by saying that the life of an endangered lowland gorilla is more important than a human child I can only say that it is this type of anthropocentric outlook that is the cause of so much animal suffering in this world.
All species are interdependent. From a purely ecological point of view the life of an endangered species is indeed more important that the life of a species that numbers in excess of 7.5 billion.
But that is not even an issue because the child in this case was not in danger.
The zoo said they could not use tranquilizer darts for fear the gorilla would fall upon the child. This is not logical because the same consequence could have happened with bullets. Firemen were there and they could have used a fire hose to separate the gorilla from the child although there was no need because the gorilla did not intend to cause harm to the child.
If the zoo-keepers had the courage and the intelligence displayed by the three men in Jersey, the gorilla would have been saved along with the boy.
That boy was with the gorilla for 10 minutes while humans screamed irrationally, contributing nothing to the situation but chaos. Harambe did not cause any harm to the boy because he was not dangerous. The only dangerously violent animals were the humans with their guns.
I was touched by what Jerry Stones had to say about the gorilla that he knew from the time he was born.
Jerry Stones raised Harambe since birth and said he's spent the past day in tears after finding the endangered Silverback had been killed by zoo officials a day after the gorilla's 17th birthday.
“An old man can cry, too,” Stones, 74, told the Daily News. “He was a special guy in my life. Harambe was my heart. It's like losing a member of the family.”
Stones looked after the beloved primate for a majority of Harambe's life, before he got transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo last year.
“I raised him from a baby, he was a sweet cute little guy,” Stones recalled. “He grew up to be a pretty, beautiful male. He was very intelligent. Very, very intelligent,” Stones reiterated. "His mind was going constantly. He was just such a sharp character." “It tore me a new one,” Stones said, after receiving news of the slaying.
Silverback gorillas, who can live up to 60 years in captivity, tend to be "gentle giants," Stones said. “It’s a tragic set of circumstances that left a beautiful young gorilla in a situation that was foreign and ultimately ended up being dangerous for him,” Stones said.
Gorillas should not be traded around like football players. Harambe lived peacefully in Texas for 16 years. He died in Ohio within a year because of negligence, ignorance and incompetence.