After trying for a decade to steer Patrick the gorilla from his bad-boy ways, Dallas Zoo officials have thrown in the towel.
“We’ve made a colossal effort to work with him,” said Lynn Kramer, the zoo’s deputy director. “He’s definitely a staff favorite and he would have been a successful leader for a troupe here. But it was not to be.”
Patrick, a 23-year-old lowland gorilla, will move in November to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C.
The Columbia zoo’s staff has a national reputation for behavior management. They will place Patrick in an enclosure where he can see other gorillas but not mix with them, said John Davis, Riverbanks’ curator of mammals.
Patrick has received lots of attention in the past decade over efforts to make him more sociable.
He was born in the Bronx Zoo and raised by humans — a background that poorly equipped him to deal with members of his own species, Kramer said.
From the time he was acquired by the Dallas Zoo in 1995, Patrick had poor social skills. One of the few gorillas he got along well with was Jabari, another young lowland gorilla, who was about Patrick’s size.
Jabari, with socialization issues of his own, was killed by Dallas police after an escape in 2004 that injured three zoo visitors.
Patrick spent the next few years by himself. He had an engaging personality that made him popular with the staff, but he would also tear up toys given to him for enrichment and occasionally throw rocks at the observation glass.
A few years ago, zoo officials brought in two female gorillas as prospective partners. He promptly bit one on the leg, and the experiment failed. The females were shipped to the Kansas City Zoo.
The Dallas Zoo staff tried again last year. They gradually introduced Patrick to two female gorillas from the Cincinnati Zoo who were expected to teach him primate etiquette.
Zoo officials were hopeful. The two new females were considered well-schooled in normal gorilla behavior and were not easily intimidated.
After a promising start, the relationship went south.
“He figured out that he was twice their size and began exerting more dominance,” Kramer said.
The females became so stressed that they couldn’t eat, so they were separated from Patrick at night. That helped, but not enough.
Patrick nipped at them, and the females began avoiding him at all costs. A few months ago, they were permanently moved to separate enclosures.
After consulting the Species Survival Commission of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which oversees placement of endangered animals, Dallas Zoo officials decided to send Patrick to South Carolina.
The staff will have a farewell party for Patrick next weekend. During the two-day event, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the zoo admission price will drop to $5 for visitors 3 years old and up. Visitors will be offered cupcakes and special gorilla presentations, and will be invited to sign a farewell card.
Officials at the Riverbanks Zoo said Patrick’s new quarters will be spacious and lush, and their proximity to the zoo’s bachelor gorilla group will keep him from being lonely.
His new handlers will continue to work on improving his behavior — and hope for the best.
“In our experience, older gorillas are difficult to socialize,” Davis said. “But with animals, you never say never.”
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2013/09 ... ving-town/
It’s been a year since we said farewell to our beloved Western lowland gorilla Patrick. You helped us send off the 24-year-old silverback with presents, cupcakes, cards, and a whole lot of love. Patrick now calls the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C., home.
Patrick was hand-raised by keepers at the Bronx Zoo due to maternal neglect. But he grew to prefer his own company more than socializing with other gorillas. After years of trying to socialize him with his own kind, it became clear he prefers to live a solitary life. The move to Riverbanks Zoo gave him the opportunity to fully thrive by himself, but in close proximity to other gorillas.
Riverbanks Zoo’s curator of mammals, John Davis, says Patrick fits in perfectly at his new home. Just as he was a visitor favorite for 18 years at the Dallas Zoo, Patrick has continued to have special interactions with Riverbanks
zookeepers and guests. “Patrick is a real crowd-pleaser,” Davis said. “Some people call just to make sure he’s out before they come.”
However, saying goodbye to Patrick wasn’t only hard for our team, but also our guests. Seven-year-old Zoé Neff feels a special connection with Patrick, and recently traveled across the country with her Grandmother to visit him.
“She cried for two days after Patrick left. She’s known him since she was 7 weeks old,” said her mother, April Neff. “We used put her up to the glass and he would follow her all around. It was love at first sight.”
And it was that interaction Zoé knew they’d have again. With her hands pressed hands against the glass, she peered into Patrick’s new home and waited for her friend to notice her. “When she finally got his attention, he ran to the glass to say hello,” Neff said. “Zoé swears Patrick remembers her.”
Davis says the other gorillas ignore the public for the most part, but Patrick loves being with guests.
Patrick joins three other male gorillas. Although he is never physically with them, he can vocalize with them, smell them and have visual contact through a mesh barrier. “Patrick is the only gorilla who’s allowed access to both the outdoor habitat at night and the indoor quarters,” Davis said. “He has more choices, but he likes to hang near the other gorillas and see them.”
He’s also caught the eyes of his keepers, who’ve learned just how smart he is. “The keepers think very highly of him. He responds nicely with training and uses tools remarkably well,” Davis explained. “He’s great at using a stick to retrieve things outside of his exhibit during enrichment activities.”
We couldn’t be more proud of Patrick for embracing his new home and giving visitors a reason to want to learn more about his species. If you’re ever in South Carolina, stop by the Riverbanks Zoo.
The Dallas Zoo works with the Gorilla Species Survival Plan to place and breed endangered animals in accredited zoos across the nation. Western lowland gorillas inhabit the thick rainforests and swamps of Africa. Due to poaching, habitat loss and disease, their numbers in the wild have fallen by more than 60 percent in the past 20 years.
https://zoohoo.dallaszoo.com/2014/10/17 ... -new-home/
ο καημενούλης, απέκτησε mommy issues επειδή τον εγκατέλειψε η μαμά μικρό και δεν έμαθε ποτέ πως να πλησιάζει τα θηλυκά
πλέον μένει ουσιαστικά μόνος του σε δικό του χώρο μακριά απο τους γειτώνους του, που προφανώς είναι οικογένειες με παιδιά 