Hasn't taken long for the armchair quarterbacks to get started:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/scienc...66ae621d67
Quote:Quote:
AN AUSTRALIAN animal behaviour expert says the gorilla shot dead in a popular US zoo would not have harmed the child who fell into his enclosure.
There has been global outrage since a silverback gorilla, Harambe, was shot and killed “to save the life of a child” who climbed through a public barrier at Gorilla World, Cincinatti Zoo.
The four-year-old boy dropped 4.5 metres into a moat before coming face to face with the leader of a troop of silverbacks.
Footage filmed on a mobile phone shows the 17-year-old gorilla on all fours standing over the boy. The 200kg primate turns the boy around before pulling on his clothing and “dragging” him away from horrified onlookers.
University of New England animal behaviour expert Gisela Kaplan told news.com.au she does not believe the boy was in any real danger.
“Usually a child is not a threat,” said Professor Kaplan, who is the author of Orang-utans in Borneo.
“The silverback would’ve understood that it was a defenceless small child. They would not normally attack, they are not an aggressive species (and) in the wild I’m certain the boy wouldn’t have been killed.”
Prof Kaplan said the leader of the troop was doing what it was supposed to do. It was “investigating”, not attacking.
“I can tell you silverbacks are protectors of their group,” she said.
“If there’s an unusual thing happening, (Harambe) needs to investigate. The fact that he went over to the child is absolutely natural behaviour but it doesn't mean he was aggressive.
“If he was going to attack he would’ve warned him first. The first thing they do is charge and beat their chests and as far as I know that didn’t happen.”
Prof Kaplan said Harambe likely moved the boy away from the screaming crowd of people because of the noise.
“Screaming is only used in extreme situations with primates and it would’ve only raised stress levels. I think it’s wrong that they shot it dead but I wasn’t there so it’s hard to be too critical.”
Asshole.
Why? Because animals in zoos do not behave the same as animals in the wild. Not by a long shot. Their behaviour changes because of their confinement -- just as you behave in a different way when your entire world is confined down to the space of a prison cell.
Indeed the behaviour of the crowd, screaming for the kid, changes the situation significantly, since it's not a situation the gorilla encounters in the wild.
On top of that, the Zoo intervened I think to stop the possibility of an attack. Of course the fucking animal didn't attack. If it had, the kid would have been dead. Even in "neutral", "investigatory" mode, though, it slammed the kid around and dragged him from place to place.
Quote:Quote:
Cincinatti Zoo said it did everything possible to avoid having to shoot Harambe, but Prof Kaplan said the gorilla should have responded to commands.
“If the keepers have a good relationship with the group, it should’ve been one keeper giving a command. Calm him down, that should’ve been sufficient,” she said.
Again, asshole. Because she's just said two minutes earlier that the screaming crowd would have generated tension, and whether the "good relationship" would hold in those circumstances is entirely questionable.
Over the next few days, beware of fuckwits
anthropomorphising, that is, giving human qualities to, the gorilla. Whenever people tell you the gorilla was just "protecting" or "helping" the kid, remember, they are ascribing what
looks like protective behaviour to a human to a creature that is not. Gorillas are not sapient. Their behaviour is still down in the stimulus-response area, though they have a somewhat more advanced brain than your average termite. "Protective" behaviour could just as easily be "taking away to a private place to kill you" behaviour, especially given the gorilla is supposedly the protector of his
tribe, not fucking Akela out of the
Jungle Book.
Remissas, discite, vivet.
God save us from people who mean well. -storm