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zoo life One of my earliest assignments at the Journal-Constitution was covering the zoo. I was just in time to follow the socialization of the silverback gorilla Willie B., a saga that captivated the entire city. Below are the tops of some of those stories, and one which did help when I began writing Shikar. It taught me how a tiger's fur feels. tiger attack
The tiger was upon me before I saw him.
His paws hit my shoulders; there was a faint snarl in my ear and I stiffened,
awaiting his teeth in my neck.
"If he bites you too hard, tell me," said the woman at my side.
"He has to learn his manners."
Fortunately, this tiger is only 3 months old, weighs 18 pounds and is a perfect
gentleman, apparently understanding even at his tender age the bad press that
can result from chewing reporters. He
is Wei, a rare white tiger on display with his half brother, Kashmir, at Zoo
Atlanta for a month beginning Saturday. They are on loan from the Columbus, Ohio
zoo.... willie b.'s first date Willie B., the darkly handsome bachelor gorilla of Zoo Atlanta, had the pot-bellied, spindly-legged enchantress next door up to his room Tuesday and the result was not exactly a lover’s tryst.
willie b.'s first baby
A saga that began six years ago when a bewildered gorilla emerged from 27 years of solitary confinement to stare wonderingly at the sky and trees ended triumphantly Wednesday when the great silverback saw his newborn child. "I feel like crying," said Zoo Atlanta Director Terry Maple, watching Willie B's mate, Choomba, cradle the infant she bore late Tuesday night. ....when the family was let out into the compound Wednesday morning, Choomba was quite forthcoming. She made her way quickly to the Gorilla Interpretive Center. There she foraged her breakfast fruit, holding her infant close to her chest with a massive paw but plain for the zoo workers to see.... The other members of Willie's family, Shamba and Kinyani, showed no curiosity. Willie approached within about 15 yards of Choomba and his baby, and the two adults eyed each other for long minutes. He did not attempt to move closer, however, and Maple said it would probably be some time before Choomba would let him near. Choomba, a 31-year-old grandmother whose only other child, Maki, was born 17 years ago is "one of the oldest if not the oldest" to give birth in captivity, said Dr. Kenneth Gould, chief of reproductive biology at Yerkes Primate Research Center. Willie's child is the sixth born at the zoo since the rain forest was built. The previous five were all raised normally. To zoologists in general, the birth is of considerable significance because it places Willie's genes in the pool of captive lowland gorillas -- considered the only hope for survival of the species. It also is the crowning event in an experiment that, experts say, has never before been brought off so completely. "Nobody's ever taken an animal like this, that's been left for the dust bin, and turned it around like this," said Maple. Willie was captured in the wild at about the age of 3, brought to Atlanta, named for Mayor William B. Hartsfield, and installed in a big concrete and steel cage. He lived there for 27 years, never seeing the outdoors or another gorilla, his only companions a rubber tire suspended from a rope, a television set and a keeper named Charles Horton.... -- Atlanta Journal Constitution, Feb. 10, 1994
baboon love
It's tough enough being an endangered animal, bearing the survival of the species on your hairy shoulders, without having a debonair Frenchman move in next door and start ogling your wife. That's why Adonis, the hulking male drill baboon at Zoo Atlanta, is spending most of his days this fall standing sentinel on an artificial rock, staring moodily into the adjoining enclosure occupied by Bobby, the French drill. ....keepers have observed [Bobby] approaching the mesh that separates [them] to confront the older and much larger German drill. They exchange threats -- a stiff-legged stance, a snort and a bobbing of the head and shoulders. Then Bobby, secure in the knowledge that the mesh will protect him, gives a Gallic shrug and walks jauntily away. He is well aware...that the mesh is all that stands between him and disaster. Adonis weighs nearly 100 ponds and would make mincemeat of his French rival Bobby's rump, for instance, is upholstered in nondescript shades of tan. Adonis' more mature backside has turned to lovely shades of pink on one side and sky blue on the other. He rises occasionally from his silent vigil, scratches the blue side and yawns hugely -- all the better to display his 2-inch -long fangs. No simian Alain Delon wants to mess with a guy like that. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 30, 1996
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