I read an article this morning about Patrick, the 430-pound
Gorilla, who has had some ‘behavioural’ issues around other Gorillas, and who
is now being moved to the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina known for working
with gorillas with behaviour problems.
The story goes that Patrick, who was born in captivity
(Bronx Zoo, 1990), gets along just fine with humans, but not his own kind. The
Zoo where he’s lived for the past 18 years said they have tried repeatedly to
socialize him with the other gorillas, particularly the females, in the hopes
that he might get along and even breed. Instead, he bit one female and sneered
and nipped at others. Patrick was more tolerant of other male gorillas but
seemed only to engage with Jabari, who was shot to death by Dallas police after
he escaped in 2004 and injured three people.
I’m not a shrink, but the problem seems obvious- Patrick is
gay and has been watching Jungle Book a few too many times. He needs a good
doze of Gorilla-Prozac and get over Jabari. Oh, it would also help if somebody
could explain to him that King Louie is a cartoon figure.
