is it common practice for zoo's to chain the gorillas?..few pics and general zoo talk

im curious about this.

i took my wife and daughter to the zoo today.....the gorilla was just sitting there on a big ass rock looking super depressed...i was wondering why he wasnt jumping off the rock and hopping the wall. there was a small moat but he could have leaped past that...

i walked to the other side and noticed a few of the rocks had big ass rings/chains buried in them....

i am guessing they had the gorilla chained up.....pretty disturbing.....i dont like that

i couldnt see the chain around his leg/foot but im thinking he had to be chained up....

do you think that is common?

i didnt know they did that

Maybe they chain him when they need to enter his holding area - to clean or leave food? Most zoos have smaller holding areas they put the animals in for that purpose. I don't know. What a depressing sight.

For any benefit zoos provide in terms of public education and attempts to save endangered species, the cost (to the individual animals) for how many zoos operate seems just too great. There has to be a better way.

i couldnt tell from these angles but im pretty sure he was chained up....i thought maybe they had him sedated until i saw that ring in the rock.....

also, i didnt realize how big ant eaters are.....we saw a few of them and those dudes are big.....

i am torn with my feelings about the zoo. im glad they are around as that is the only way my daughter will see a lot of those animals in real life.....it sucks seeing them caged up though....
gorillas are my favorite animals and with them you can really tell theyre depressed...

the elephants/giraffes, etc dont really seem to mind one way or the other....the gorillas though....you can see it in their face....they look so bummed out......

the orangutans were pretty sweet too.....

they have a building there called the rain forest..we went in and there are a few monkey exhibits in there....one of them had a very small baby with it....it cruised right up to the glass with the baby and sat right in front of my daughter....my daughter put her hand on the glass and the monkey copied her.....that monkey just sat there for about 10 minutes messing with my daughter....it was really cool.

they had a pretty cool jelly fish exhibit too....they had them under blue lunar lights so they were giving off this cool glow.
--------------

going here did remind me of how much i dislike people in real life....
some of the kids/parents there were such jerks...

at that monkey exhibit i was talking about there were 2 little girls about 6 years old right by the glass. the mom was standing against the wall messing with her phone.....we walked up and she told the girls to scoot over to give my daughter a turn to get close. they did for about 1 second...as soon as my daughter got close to the glass and started looking, the one girl sat on the ledge and started leaning over, blocking my daughters view...my daughter moved a couple feet over to get a look and this little brat scooted over and did it again...this kid was not even facing the glass. she was just trying to stop my daughter from looking....
of course the mom was just messing with her phone.....i was squatting down next to my daughter and looked up at the mom and said "i know you see your kid blocking my daughters view on purpose....whats the deal?"....then they moved away....

people really suck sometimes.....

anyway, it was fun but sad too..

do they chain the gorillas at the zoo by you?

few pics





^^^see the baby monkey

originally posted by: VegHead
Maybe they chain him when they need to enter his holding area - to clean or leave food?

i dont know...this dude was just sitting there munching on something...i couldnt see if her was chained....
his 'area' was not enclosed....just a pretty frail looking fence....there was water between the rails in front of us and the grass in front of him...it was maybe 1 foot deep and 5 feet wide...
im thinking if he was not chained up he cold have hopped out of that no problem....

i dont know.....it botherd me.

i would rather have seen him in a full enclosure with a heavy duty fence/roof so he could run around...

the more i think about it, he had to be chained up...there is no way the zoo would take the risk of him getting out with all the people around.....

it is still bothering me a lot......

part of me never wants to go to the zoo and contribute to that but the other part wants to see my baby girl enjoy seeing these beautiful animals in person.

she really liked the elephants.......

they had a shark tank too with a little ledge.....my daughter was standing on the ledge in front of me, in front of the glass and the shark swam by, with its belly right against the glass. that was really cool.....

the capybara was sweet too.
here they are...the ant eater is behind them...couldnt get a good pic cause they wouldt stay still

The last time I went to the zoo neither the gorillas nor any of the apes were chained up in any way, that's cruel in my opinion.

There was a silverback in his own enclosure and the poor fella looked bored out of his mind, he was leaning on the ledge in front of the screen with his chin in his hands just like a human does. The resemblance between us and them is uncanny.

Zoos are there to present you metaphor directing you to examine your own condition. Simply having animals in cages apparently isn't a message that people are getting, so now they have to be chained. Hopefully this message will be effective, if not... another will be necessary.

a reply to: Grovit

What zoo was this? And I think you should have asked one of the keepers there about the Gorilla to find out if it was chained. I know I would have. If they are chaining it,then you need to start a petition against the zoo until they either get rid of the gorillas or update their inclosure.

I know it isn't normal to chain these animals. They aren't chained in zoos I've visited anyway.

originally posted by: Dimithae
a reply to: Grovit

What zoo was this? And I think you should have asked one of the keepers there about the Gorilla to find out if it was chained..

cleveland zoo.
im thinking about calling them tomorrow....i was there with the family on limited time....i didnt want to spend the day tracking down someone in the know and start asking questions.....i was there to show my daughter the animals....

the more i think about it the more it bothers me....i will probably make a call tomorrow.

i didnt see a chain on him but he was pretty far away...the way he was sitting and the way the rock was shaped i couldnt see the bottom part of his legs.

he didnt move much though...moved his head and his arms...thats it....we stood there checking him out for a while too.

i cant say for sure if he was chained but if i had to guess i would say he was.....im telling you, from where we were standing, it was wide open....in front of us was a rail that was not even as tall as my daughter and she is only two...
from there it was a drop, maybe 10 feet. then about 10 feet of grass. then there was the water i mentioned....then about 8 feet of grass and then the rock he was chilling on.....
from his view, there were trees to his left....in front of him and to the left....there was a wall behind him...
from my view it was wide open in front of me...to my right it was a drop, then the trees. to my left it was the drop, then a fence...

that was it....

there was nothing stopping him from hopping off the rock and out of his enclosure...nothing that i could see.

i can not see the zoo taking that kind of risk with a gorilla....

if he was not chained then i would say he was sedated......

even if he sat there 99.999% of the time, they would not take the risk that on a whim he decides to hop right on out of there....

why would there be a chain/ring on the other rock if they didnt chain him?

you know how rock climbers have a gun(for lack of a better term) that will shoot a peg into the rock and from there they can attach a ring?
thats what it looks like they did with the rock i am talking about...it was very heavy duty....
there was about 4 heavy duty links coming from out of the rock with a heavy duty ring on it....

I have no doubt that animals are abused just being in a Zoo is abuse. But one question comes to mind how does one chain a 500 pound ape with the strength of 8 men to a rock? Then how does one unchain the said Ape and survive his anger?

You can't drag him there and you can't leave him all day long sitting in one spot. Just my thoughts on the matter but rest assured I have zero tolerance for Zoo's and what not's located along rural highways.

Great thread.
Regards, Iwinder

originally posted by: Iwinder
I have no doubt that animals are abused just being in a Zoo is abuse. But one question comes to mind how does one chain a 500 pound ape with the strength of 8 men to a rock?

i dont have an answer to that....
they were big ass links with a big ass ring attached to a big ass rock

look at the size of the rock he was sitting on...its not like he could pick it up or drag it around

im sure we have all seen pics of other animals chained up....

they chain elephants at the circus and they are pretty strong...

im wide open as to explanations to to explain what prevents the gorilla from just climbing out of his enclosure...

if he wasnt chained or sedated then what was stopping him?

i didnt get pics of the entire enclosure but im telling you i could have climbed down there no problem....it would have been a little harder for me to get out but i could have.

what about the risk of someone getting destroyed by the gorilla if they fell?

i just dont see the zoo risking that.....

lets say he was not chained up...if some kid jumped down there or fell there would have been nothing stoppping the gorilla from going up to him and doing whatever he wanted...

i just dont get it and the chain is the only thing i can think ot

www.thenakedscientists.com...

I was curious about the strength of a sliver back gorilla compared to a man.

So, an adult gorilla is about 6 times stronger if you're talking about upper body strength than an adult human.

^^^^^^^^^i dont think 6 times stronger would be big enough to pick up that or drag that rock? if he could drag it i dont think he could make it out of his enclosure while attached to it...

most of their strength is in their upper body....they have pretty small legs considering how large the rest of their body is

im wide open as to explanations to to explain what prevents the gorilla from just climbing out of his enclosure... if he wasnt chained or sedated then what was stopping him?

a reply to: Grovit
Good point I have no idea what was stopping him?
Just thought with my post above that I would state the obvious......nobody goes near an adult Gorilla unless its knocked right out for medical reasons.
Unless the crazy person to do is on Meth, or just delusional.

Poor guy looks board out of his mind and yes that is a huge rock he is sitting on.
Regards, Iwinder

a reply to: Iwinder

he looked depressed..you could see it in his face...
even the orangutan looked content at the least...he was chilling out, munching on a stick, walking around....

the baboons, spider monkeys, and all the smaller monkeys 'seemed' to be doing just fine....they had ropes and balls and # to play with...they had other monkeys in there with them...

this dude didnt have anything.....he was in there alone and he looked super sad...

im not saying he couldnt move off that rock but he didnt....all he did was turn his head a couple times and reached out with his left arm to pick up whatever he was munching on....

a reply to: Grovit

No he wasn't chained to anything. The outdoor gorilla enclosure is actually quite large and extends behind the building. The front side of the enclosure where I am assuming you were that gap between the patrons and the gorilla is a bit of an optical illusion and a bit bigger than what you can see. As to why this particular gorilla was looking depressed is hard to say. He may have gotten into a quarrel with the other gorilla (Cleveland has two males currently) or any number of other reasons.

a reply to: KeliOnyx

Then why does the other rock i could see have chain links and a ring attached? Thats not there for no reason.
I guess you could be right. I didnt see an illusion...not like there was a set of penrose stairs...
So your saying that gorilla couldnt make his way out if he wanted?
I want to believe it but i dont know.
I know all he had to do to get to the trees from his rock is hop down. Cross a few foot wide and foot deep moat and hes at the trees.
I could touch leaves on those trees from where i was before i walked down the grade to get the pics. Im thinking he could crouching tiger those trees better than li mu bai.
It just seemed strange to me.
I hope youre right

a reply to: Grovit

He was chained? Wow...I've never seen that before and frankly, I'm glad. To see an animal treated in such a manner would no doubt have saddened and infuriated me.

I get why we have zoos, and I also understand why people visit them. I'm not judging those who do....I just can't, I've tried. Seeing animals ripped out of their natural habitats and put on display absolutely rips my heart out. Especially the Gorillas. You can tell just by looking in their eyes that they are beyond depressed.

a reply to: U4ea82

I dont have a pic of it and i couldnt see the bottom part of his legs but yeah, i think he was chained.
I dont buy the optical illusion....im telling you i could have got there very easy which means he could get up just as easy...
Thats what i think and seeing the other rock with a metal ring attached is what set it for me.
Hope im wrong though

a reply to: Grovit

I believe you, you have no reason to lie about something like that....and I really can't see a scenario in which your eyes were playing that big of a trick on you, especially if he was in an area that you witnessed would be easy to escape from.

Zoos are some of the biggest violators of animal rights. Chaining an animal would actually be one of the least horrific things that they've done in the name of "public education". Don't get me wrong, I'm all for teaching the general population about the abundant life around them. I just wish they'd do it in a way where the animal was respected and treated in such a way that they didn't live out their lives in captive misery.