Triple redundant systems not enough for gorilla

[stormshadow]

www.the-sun.com/news/1542579/zoo-keeper-mauled-gorilla-madrid-malabo/

He was still angry after busting down the third safety door.

[josepz]

You never know how a wild animal will react, or what exactly will make them react aggressively. 
Even if raised in captivity since birth, a gorilla is a wild animal. 

[stormshadow]

I thought it was very interesting that he went after a female that raised him from an early age. I am glad they did not euthanize.

[josepz]

Sept 28, 2020 12:20:05 GMT stormshadow said:

I thought it was very interesting that he went after a female that raised him from an early age. I am glad they did not euthanize.

Do you think that her beig a female makes a difference for him? Like she could be some kind of motherly figure to him?
I dunno, gorillas are highly intelligent, but a woman doesn't look like a female gorilla at all. Not even a full grown muscular man looks half as sturdy as a female gorilla.
I suspect she unwillingly made something that the gorilla understood as a challenge or a direct attack. Male gorillas are territorial, often impulsive, and always alert of whatever challenges they might find or any potential harm to the group.
About euthanasia, I think it's not that easy with primates fortunately. I might be wrong, but I think there's some international law or ruling that makes great apes "non-human persons" or something like that.

[pierinifitness]

Personally, I wouldn't mess with either a gorilla or Bruce if agitated.  Of the two, I'd prefer a physical confrontation with the gorilla who I judge as slightly better looking than Bruce.  I think I could use a couple bananas to buy my way out of a fisticuffs confrontation with Bruce but am less sure about this working with the gorilla.

I hope the person heals physically and emotionally from her terrible experience.

[stormshadow]

I knew two guys who had dangerous animals as pets. One was a grizzly bear and the other a wolf. Both had raised them from cubs. They never came close to attacking them. However I have heard of tigers attacking their owners even from raising from a young age. I did not think the gorilla had motherly thoughts. I thought someone that fed and cared for them for many years would be safer.

[mr potatohead]

Menstruation. I have a friend who used to have a bull or two. She avoided them during menstrual cycle days due to their aggression from smell of flow.

[josepz]

Sept 28, 2020 13:42:16 GMT stormshadow said:

I knew two guys who had dangerous animals as pets. One was a grizzly bear and the other a wolf. Both had raised them from cubs. They never came close to attacking them. However I have heard of tigers attacking their owners even from raising from a young age. I did not think the gorilla had motherly thoughts. I thought someone that fed and cared for them for many years would be safer.

Even if gorillas had "motherly thoughts", which is not unlikely, they don't relate to humans as easily as chimps and bonobos. Many animals periodically challenge their alphas to get to a dominant position. Maybe this was the case. Or maybe the gorilla misinterpreted something. Any person that has had any experience with apes will tell you that smiling at them (showing your teeth) is definitely NOT a good idea. Apes don't smile and if they look like they're smiling, they're actually showing off their teeth as a weapon. Surely that woman knew that, but sometimes you can't help but smile, it's an unconscious reaction.
I don't know about grizzly bears, but wolves can be kept as pets only by someone who knows their psychology, lives alone and has no children that the animal finds tempting to eat. Wolves can be tamed but they have one and only one master, and children are always yummy to them. That's why dogs were created by selective breeding 10000 years ago.
A wild animal is always a wild animal.

[josepz]

Sept 28, 2020 13:57:06 GMT mr potatohead said:

Menstruation. I have a friend who used to have a bull or two. She avoided them during menstrual cycle days due to their aggression from smell of flow.

Could perfectly be the case. I don't know how good the sense of smell of gorillas is though. We primates tend to have somewhat good eyesight with very good color vision (which is rare among mammals), but also a poor sense of smell.
Also, if she raised that 9 year old male, he should be used to her smell while menstruating.
As I said, animals are unpredictable. Who knows.

[josepz]

BTW, this reminds me of a news story from maybe 20 years ago that left primatologists stunned. It involved a gorilla beating the crap out of a mentally ill woman at a German zoo. She visited the zoo every day 'cause she thought the gorilla smiled at her. She went and called the gorilla and smiled back at him every single day. Of course this couldn't end well.

The thing is that until the early 2000s, gorillas were thought to be unable to swim. Gorillas don't like water and they definitely don't swim, period.

Well, that gorilla at the German zoo jumped to the water and swam all across the moat that separated his enclosure from the visitors only to get to that evil woman that showed him her teeth to beat the crap out of her. She survived I think, but with major injuries, and I remember finding the story hilarious back then.