An animal behaviour expert believes Harambe the gorilla, who was shot dead when a four-year-old boy fell into his zoo enclosure, was 'investigating, not attacking' the child, which it understood was 'defenceless'.
The 180kg, critically endangered western lowland gorilla, was killed by officials at Cincinnati Zoo in the U.S. just one day after his 17th birthday after the boy climbed through barriers and fell 4.5 metres into the enclosure on Saturday.
*. Cincinatti Zoo staff shot Harambe after he dragged the boy through the water, but many say he was simply trying to protect the child.
Footage taken from another visitor shows the gorilla grabbing on to the boy's shirt. Many are placing the blame squarely on the parents of a four-year-old boy, who investigators believe crawled through a railing barrier.
Watch the video below.......
University of New England animal behaviour expert Professor Gisela Kaplan.
Children weren't normally a threat according to Prof Kaplan, who said dominant gorillas like Harambe were protectors of their group and that the primate would have been investigating the strange new situation. '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,' she said.'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.' Bondi Vet Dr Chris Brown has also spoken out about the gorilla's death, suggesting in a Facebook post there could have been other ways to dealwith the situation which wouldn't have resulted in killing the animal.'The killing of 17 year old gorilla Harambe after a four-year-old boy fell into his enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo has left many of you asking whether such a drastic move was really necessary...?







Comments
Post a Comment