Gorilla in Therapy

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.