Two wrongs don’t make a right?
I can’t find and probably wouldn’t want to post, anyway, the video of that tiger escaping from it’s enclosure, running down and killing those tormenting kids. It’s out there somewhere but you don’t want to see it. Have this instead.
crazy drunk motherfucker
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Gorillas know it’s a reflection. As do chimps, elephants, and dolphins. Maybe others but at least those.
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I definitely had a different kind of childhood! My mother had studied anthropology and when we went to the Wild Animal Park, I got the laundry list of things to not do! There was no loud talking, no eye contact, certainly no chest thumping or other displays of crazy movements. The San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park are pretty good about their signage of not messing with the animals either.
I was raised with many types of animals in our household, so I learned early on what was tolerated and not tolerated. I definitely wouldn’t have been allowed to act the way that little girl was. I feel like the parent was also more concerned about taking video than watching the kid’s actions. Parents these days! Sheesh.
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Then you were probably all clear to mete out punishment.
Primates ignorant of primate dominance displays? To be fair, humans, by and large, would laugh provocations from a little girl because its cute. If it were a teenage boy doing it, I would expect that he understood exactly what he was doing, without any instruction, and the gorilla’s response would be perfectly understandable.
Looks to me like they got educated pretty well.
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We’ve forgotten all that stuff. Ever since we started making sharp rocks and pointy sticks and wearing clothes and drinking lattes.
Hordes, not hoards.
People come to zoos to be educated, not to display the fact that they already know all about animal behavior.
If the apes can see the people that well, there need to be warning signs explaining what might set them off and maybe those glasses.
This is not even mainly a problem for the people…the safety glass worked even though it cracked. The animals could easily injure themselves slamming into it.
The real dominance show was for the other gorilla.
What made me cringe was the man, who genuinely laughs about the situation as though that rubbish glass didn’t actually break, and it was all just a bit of entertainment for his little brain.
How clever. Gold star!
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Yes! I am a winner! At last!
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If you truly believe that male humans don’t instinctively understand male primate dominance displays, then you’ve never been to a honky-tonk bar on a Saturday night.
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I disagree, without that sort of pre-existing knowledge I see no reason why it should be obvious that it’s more provocative than clapping your hands, tapping your feet, patting your head while rubbing your belly, or any other repetitive physical gesture. As others said, it really should be the zoo’s responsibility to educate visitors about specific behaviors that provoke the animals.
Seems like poor engineering on the part of the zoo. Usually those places have a moat to prevent such close interaction with the wildlife–I would think it would behoove the animals to have reflective glass so they couldn’t be taunted by the foolish humans in such a way?
Why do you think that of all the gestures the kid could have done, they chose thumping their chest with their fists? Do you usually see people do this? It was pre-existing knowledge. Rampant gorillas are often depicted doing this in popular culture, and the kid was obviously aware of it, if not prepared for the full reality.
Do not assume the gorilla would have peeled the humans like banana’s. Many animal will start an attack but do not always follow through. Gorilla uses false charge probably a lot more than an all out attack.
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Humans, by and large, would laugh at ANYBODY doing a gorilla-imitating chest thump whether they were a child doing it to be cute, or a teenager/adult doing it to try to assert dominance. Because it looks fucking ridiculous.
Because this is the one of most common gestures associated with gorillas, period? Particularly in cartoons. And certainly not necessarily in a context of “Hey, do this and I will attack your ass”. I always assumed it meant “I am angry” - a la Donkey Kong, etc. Definitely not “I am trying to assert dominance over you”. I imagine this child went to the monkey enclosure next, and did the “hands scratching the armpits” motion too.
That looks like Henry Doorly Zoo, and that gorilla attacks the window a lot even when people are doing nothing at all, several timew a day. Every time we go the gorilla does that 2-3 times. Its not much to do with the kid or what she was doing. No, don’t provoke animals, but thats not a great example.
Here’s an article about them (different Gorilla):
Here’s 2012:
July 2013:
October 2014:
https://screen.yahoo.com/gorilla-scares-children-zoo-routine-143529129.html
