Yesterday I posted about my thoughts and feelings regarding my recent trip to the Calgary Zoo and how conflicted and uneasy I felt about the animals living there and the real purpose of a zoo.
This post I going to talk about one specific interaction I had and what I took away from that encounter.
Gorilla's and monkeys are similar to humans in many ways, emotions, family bonding, aggression and dominates just to name a few. As I was touring the zoo I came across the Gorilla habit. This area was fairly large and had six or seven gorilla's housed inside. Most were laying about or sleeping however one was very active.
This particular gorilla was walking around with a piece of burlap wrapping itself in it and tossing it around in the same fashion a child might with a blanket. I though this might make for a good image so I moved from the upper viewing area to a lower one to photograph this particular behavior. Unfortunately I missed the shot and by the time I got there it had put the cloth down and was munching on some grass.
I managed to capture a couple of images before it got up looked at me through the glass and then hammered the glass with its fist. I am not an ape expert but I definitely felt the utter dominance and "don't take my picture" feel from this action.
I wasn't afraid but I got the message. Immediately after there was a man watching what had just unfolded around the corner from where I was and the gorilla ran right over to him and stood in a very dominate stance towards him.
This whole situation and the aftermath really struck a cord with me and my views on animals in captivity. I started to question every behavior that I saw and what was the cause. Was this Gorilla just asserting its dominance? Was this a reaction to being put on display? I don't know but either way the entirety of the situation really caused me to think about everything that I had seen.
Monkey's watching monkey's...
I'd love to hear your thoughts and feelings.
Thanks for reading and I'll be posting more on this as the week progresses.
Scott
For more stories and images - http://www.scottstevensonphotography.ca/