Sad Gorilla story

[pam]

Such a sad story.

Gorilla refuses to let go of her dead baby - CNN.com

[Truegrits]

Soooo sad. I had a cat, Siamese, that licked and nudged one of her kittens, (dead) refusing to give up. I finally took it away. At least she had several others to care for; the gorilla mom only had one.

[pam]

Plus she had another baby in 2007 which was taken away from her and moved to another zoo.

[PapilioMemnon]

Poor her... Just because animals don't speak, it doesn't mean they don't feel it...

(I felt like crying... I have tears in my eyes...)

Edited August 22, 2008 by PapilioMemnon

[Hemidakota]

Nurturing mother...yet, we have those who do not fostered this type of behavior today.

[Guest GhostRider]

Nurturing mother...yet, we have those who do not fostered this type of behavior today.

Says what we as humans can learn about out animal companions doesn't it Hemi?

[Elphaba]

Nurturing mother...yet, we have those who do not fostered this type of behavior today.

Wait. How did we go from gorillas to human beings? The story was sad enough without the need to make it about something it wasn't.

Elphaba

[Misshalfway]

I can't watch stories like this. I barely make it thru Mcdonald's commercials without crying!

[CatchTheRedeye]

Yeah, sad stories like this about our cousins, the gorillas, really tears me up. (I couldn't resist )

[WANDERER]

This is not uncommon for gorillas in captivity or in the wild...and sometimes not the mother only.

This baby Claudio (male) was thought to have a heart defect...this is an even sadder story...of how the breeding progams in zoos are fighting the battle to assist in the preservation of endangered gorillas...but...

Heart Disease Is Killing Caged Gorillas - Science & Health news | Newser: Know More. Search Less.

The gorilla mother also had another baby that she rejected: Gana rejected Mary Zwo for six weeks. Staff at the zoo finally intervened and rescued the baby, which was taken to a veterinary hospital with dehydration and exposure. Mary Zwo was never returned to her mother and has lived at a zoo in Stuttgart with four other gorillas ever since.

Further googling on Mary Zwo tells more to the story: (cached) The male father gorilla N'Kwango repeatedly attacked the mother and baby. The mother and baby had been separated from the group and the final attack resulted in hospitalisation. After the separation, Gana appeared to pine for the other gorillas and had neglected her baby as a result.

This is unusual in that gorilla infanticide is generally done by a male gorilla who is not the father of the offspring.

HOSP GOES APE OVER TINY TOT - New York Post

Mary Zwo (Mary Two) was named after another zoo baby Mary that was killed at the age of five months by another gorilla (no details..but a fair guess could be made). Mary was a half sibling of Mary Zwo (same father N'Kwango, Mother Changa). Changa was the mother gorilla who had Gana carry her living baby (father also N'Kwango) while cradling the dead Claudio on her back.

On Claudio and Gana the zoo said

This time, Münster Zoo rejected the idea of stepping in to save Claudio. "There was no point in intervening again," said Mr Adler. "We cannot keep on taking away children from a mother."

(there are difficulties when the babies are rescued and reared in terms of breeding programs for the gorillas: Mourned after being rejected: baby gorilla at heart of zoo row - Europe, World - The Independent).

Other comment made in the above article: we hoped she would be a better mother this time round.

Just felt like telling the story of the Muenster Zoo's gorillas because it deserves to be told and because the news isn't telling this story.

[debi56]

Gorillas are my favorite animals, they exhibit more human like behavior than most humans do. :) I didn't read the story because I know it would tear me up. If you have ever watched documentaries on Coco the Gorilla, you would know just how deeply their emotions run.