|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The future is in question for Ndume, the 37-year-old male western lowland gorilla who lives at a preserve operated by The Gorilla Foundation off Skyline Boulevard in Woodside.
Ndume kept company for 27 years with his sign-language-adept female partner Koko, who died in June at the preserve at the age of 46. With Ndume now alone, officials at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, where he was born, want him back.
The zoo cites the value to Ndume of cohabiting with his relatives, and notes a loan agreement that, according to a zoo statement, requires the foundation to transfer custody of Ndume to “an institution recommended by” the Gorilla Species Survival Plan and the Cincinnati Zoo.
The Gorilla Foundation is resisting, saying in a statement that if Ndume is transferred to Cincinnati, he in all likelihood will be isolated from other gorillas. The foundation is “actively seeking additional gorilla companions for Ndume” while it continues to care for him “with the companionship of his human caregivers, who have been with him for decades,” the statement says.
Both organizations say they are prepared to take the matter to court.
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
When something is loaned, it is meant to be returned. Return the Ndume with a thank you, instead of whatever The Gorilla Foundation is up to now. Embarrassing.
CINCINNATI ZOO HAS HAD TOO MANY PROBLEMS, PLUS THEY KILL GORILLAS WHEN THEY DON’T
UNDERSTAND GORILLA BEHAVIOUR, AS WITH HARMANDE, WHO GENTLY TOOK HOLD OF THE CHILD
WHO FELL IN AND WAITED AT A DOOR FOR KEEPER TO COME, BUT NO KEEP CAME, THEN HE
CAREFULLY DRAGGED THE CHILD TO A SECOND DOOR AND WAITED BUT NO KEEPER CAME. THEY
THOUGHT IT WAS BEST TO KILL HIM. NO I DON’T BELIEVE NDUME SHOULD GO TO THIS
CINCINNATI ZOO AT ALL.
Wherever the gorilla is happiest is where he should be, and that is probably with his most recent companions, human and/or animal. Transporting these intelligent, sensitive animals is always traumatic and should be minimized.
Can’t we just move Ndume to the White House. He’s got more intelligence and better manners than the chimp we have there now.