Western Lowland Gorilla, Audobon Zoo, New Orleans, LA, 2007-Jul-21
(Click on image for full size.)
This gal just sat and posed for everyone! Isn’t she gorgeous? She definitely made eye contact with various people, and eventually the male seemed to get a little jealous of the attention she was getting and came closer to crowd as well.
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:56 am
doesn’t that picture make you so sad? you can see in the gorilla’s eyes that she has sentience and self-awareness. she must wonder why she is being kept in jail and why the humans are so interested in gawking at her. i find zoos incredibly depressing.
it’s a great picture though!
July 31st, 2007 at 11:04 am
On the “animal rights” side, yes, I can see that zoos are depressing and unfair… however, on the “prevent animal extinction” side, I think they’re perhaps our best hope. Aside from the research a lot of zoos conduct to help species survive, I truly believe that people who are exposed to animals in the zoo are more likely to care about their survival in the wild. Zoos have come a long way from little cages – well, those with the big bucks at least. Hopefully one day they’ll all be huge and open, like the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, and even more hopefully, they won’t be the last refuge of wild species.
Aside from that, I know for me, ever since I was a little girl, there’s just no thrill like seeing an animal up close. I remember when I was very small, probably 6, going to Catskill Game Farm to the petting zoo – one of my very favorite memories.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
My own take on that photo was that Amy’s going to be looking like that for the next month or so; stopping to scratch her head and wonder, “Now what box did we put object X into and what room did we unpack it in?”
August 5th, 2007 at 8:09 pm