Construction.... and Mud...
photos by Steuart and/or Jane Dewar,
except as indicated.
Note: almost all photographs are
thumbnails that you can click to bring up a larger version!
| Happy Birthday, America! Time has flown by in 2005, and it's difficult to believe the year is more than halfway over. Our AZA inspection is coming up the end of this month, so we’re busy getting the gardens and grounds looking nice, in preparation for the inspection. Work continues on Emma Villa, which we’re hoping will be ready for occupancy by the end of the year. Meanwhile, we’re building Kathy’s Cottage (photo right), near Headquarters, for our friend and soon-to-be full time receptionist at GH, who will live there, making her commute to work a lot easier than it is now. Kathy has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and is in a wheelchair, but her mind and spirit are stronger than anyone we know, and we’re looking forward to welcoming her to the GH family. |
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Meanwhile, Joe continues to thrive at
GH. His long time friend, Dr. Sue Woods (photo left), came to collect more data on Joe, as
she’s been doing for approximately 15 years, including when Joe was in Denver
and Brownsville. She’s seen Joe at GH a couple of times, but this is the first
time she’s collected data on his behavior, while he had access not only to the 4
cages of Silverback Villa, but also to his portion of the habitat too.
Scientists are very strict about ascribing human terms to animals, even animals
similar to humans, like gorillas. But even Sue had to admit, Joe was a happy
gorilla, looking and behaving better than she’d ever seen him. We see him all
the time, so it was nice to get confirmation of our own beliefs from someone who
knows him so well. While the data hasn’t been analyzed yet, Sue thought it
seemed like Joe was spending most of his time either in the outside cages (A and
B) or on the concrete skirt of the villa outside in the habitat, bringing food
and hay in and out, depending on his mood.
One day Joe was showing off for our
friends. A piece of sailcloth was hanging from the C cage brachiating bars as
enrichment, and
Joe grabbed the corner of it, as he ran into the transfer/squeeze cage, as part
of an impressive display. As he turned around, the sailcloth billowed in the
wind and settled down over Joe, who had hunkered down on his tummy. We all
stifled our laughter, and watched incredulously as Joe calmly sat there, peeking
out of the sailcloth, looking like Sister Mary Joseph Gorilla or a pioneer on a
wagon train. He seemed to know he was being funny, and stayed under the
sailcloth for several minutes. Joe is such an unusual silverback, in that he
rarely displays, or manipulates objects in his cages, so this was a first.
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Some Girl Scouts between the ages of 6 and 11 years old came to help with the gardening, and did an amazingly good job, tackling our overgrown gardens, which have been ignored since our beloved gardener, Judy, stopped coming to work as she battles throat cancer. We’re hoping she’ll feel better to come back to work soon, if only to help supervise, our wonderful replacement grounds team, Spud and Tatia, seen in the right-hand photo with the special 4th of July wreath they made for us, using flowers from our gardens and a wind-ripped flag we'd replaced, but did not want to throw away. A variety of volunteers are coming in to help, which is great, especially since they offer their help, knowing they won’t necessarily get to see Joe, but that their efforts are sincerely appreciated. Since the Girl Scouts came with our faithful volunteer, JoBeth, we allowed them to visit Joe, who was fascinated by the children. As we were leaving, the girls all quietly said “Goodnight Joe!” and Joe replied with a long, purr rumble of happiness, which was a perfect ending to a long day of hard work. |
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A Special Gift Thanks to New Friends Met on Ebay!
A
while ago, I was looking at Ebay for gorilla items, while waiting for someone to
arrive. I spotted an unusual item named "Mataki" and had to have a look. It was
a life sized statue of the silverback gorilla at Port Lympne in England, whose
given name is Mataki, but who everyone who's known him since he was a baby calls
Bonz ... yes, the same Bonz the Villa is named after. I saw the statue and knew
I could never afford to get it from England to GH, since it was more money than
I could justify spending on more gorilla art. But it was so beautiful, I had to
email the artist to say how lovely it was, and send him a couple of photos of Bonz as a baby. I got the most amazing email reply back from Cheryl and Lou
Jones, the artist and his wife. They read our website and decided Mataki the
statue, had to come to Gorilla Haven and they donated the piece to us and agreed
to pay about half the shipping costs! We're waiting excitedly for the statue to
arrive any day now, where it will have a place of honor near Headquarters. Here
is a photo of the statue of Mataki (the big one in front of Cheryl) and the
artist, courtesy of the Joneses. Only someone who loves gorillas could have captured the majesty and
dignity of Bonz. We want to say thank you to Lou and Cheryl, not only for
their amazing generosity, but for their love of gorillas too. For more
information about Lou's art, you can contact them at:
LouJones@blueyonder.co.uk.
