Information for Neighborhood Concerns About Gorilla Haven
What/Where is Gorilla Haven (GH)? GH is located on 324 acres a few miles from downtown Morganton, GA. Click here for more details. This "fact sheet" is intended to answer concerns of neighbors and people unfamiliar with gorillas.
Why gorillas? It’s simply what we "do" best. There are a lot of animals in need of a sanctuary like GH, but we have limited resources and the need is smaller for gorillas, so we feel we can make a difference. We’ve sold our fancy home and computer company, putting our life’s savings towards making this dream a reality. This is more than a whim - it’s our future life’s work and something we’ve been planning for years!
Why Fannin County? We looked in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia before finding what we felt was the perfect place for our home and GH. The 324 acres offers us natural security with its own ridge lines and valleys, and the location, climate and people we met all made it an easy decision to choose Morganton as our new home. On a lighter note, we seriously considered a 900 acre parcel in TN off of Stinking Creek Road, but when we found our current property off of OLD LOVING Road, it was easy to know which address we’d prefer!
Are there gorillas here now? Yes. We welcomed our first gorilla resident, Joe, in the spring of 2003. We have also met all state, local and federal requirements for the care and housing of gorillas and belong to the gorilla SSP (Species Survival Plan). We want to have an open door/good neighbor policy so there are no secrets or surprises. We urge people to contact us with their concerns or questions, since rumors and misinformation only create needless stress and fears for everyone.
Is it safe? Absolutely. We have been working closely with the zoo community, including Zoo Atlanta, to make sure we match or exceed all safety standards in housing and maintaining gorillas in captivity. Gorillas are very private, quiet and gentle animals, despite their great size and strength and the bad press history and Hollywood has given them. Given a good, enriched and comfortable environment, a gorilla probably won’t want to leave their enclosure, even if given a chance. Our biggest concern will be keeping uninvited people out, not gorillas in!
What about security? We have human and video surveillance and professionally planned/implemented security. We’ve seen "Jurassic Park" and won’t make the same mistakes, we assure you!! We hope our neighbors and the community will alert us to any potential problems, helping to make this project successful. If finances and technology allow it, we even hope to have a video hook up to the Internet so that zoos (or the public) can watch the gorillas at GH at any time for behavioral observations and research studies.
How will the gorillas be contained? Enclosure design was done by top gorilla experts from around the world, using the natural terrain of our property, as well as safe and cost-effective methods. You can read about details of the facilities. The property itself is surrounded by natural ravines and ridges, so that the gorillas will be easily contained and any human trespasser will be faced with several security/warning lines, fences and obstacles before reaching any gorilla. No one casually walking in this area will "stumble" upon a gorilla!
But what if a gorilla escapes!?! GH has a well thought-out and documented plan for emergencies, whether nature/weather related or caused by human/mechanical failure. Indeed, GH could not operate without a strictly outlined and realistic to implement plan and back-up plan. Most of our 324 acres will be used as buffering, with only a small percentage housing gorillas towards the interior, away from neighbors and roads.
There have been only a few cases in zoos where a gorilla has escaped from their cage. In every case, this was caused by human error, when locks weren’t secured properly. A gorilla has NEVER broken out of a cage! One keeper was bitten on the leg by a gorilla, scared and confused at his new-found freedom - but the bite was minor and the gorilla’s attempt to keep the keeper away, not to cause injury. Like a two year old child playing with a loaded gun, a gorilla may not understand his own strength or its consequences, but he wouldn’t maliciously or deliberately want to hurt others. In all cases of a gorilla escape, the gorilla was quickly and safely put back in their enclosure - to the great relief of the gorillas, more than the humans!!
What about diseases? Contact between gorillas and humans (except their keepers) will be limited to non-existent, so the possibility of disease transmission is virtually nil. Quarantine facilities are also a requirement of the zoo world, to ensure any gorillas moved to GH are free of any diseases. Top veterinary and medical staff will assist us in providing the best care for gorillas and humans alike at GH.
What about noise and pollution? Gorillas are quiet and gentle, by nature, and when they do make noise, it only lasts a few seconds, when scared or annoyed (and our goal will be to have no scared or annoyed gorillas!). Usually they make no sounds at all, or purr or rumble quietly among themselves when contented or playful. Gorillas create no more waste problems than humans, and unlike a chicken or pig farm, there should be no pollution to the environment. Indeed gorilla feces generally smells better than human waste, due to their strictly vegetarian diet!
Isn’t the climate wrong for gorillas? Gorillas in Africa live in the cold mountains of Rwanda and Uganda as well as the tropics. Zoo gorillas have adapted well to their various zoo environments. There are gorillas all over cold weather areas, like Buffalo, NY, Chicago, IL and St. Paul, MN, not to mention Calgary and Toronto, Canada. Fannin County’s more moderate climate should be ideal. We’ll have indoor housing for extreme weather conditions.
How many gorillas will live at GH? It depends on many factors, but even if we only house one gorilla, we will feel we have helped a lot. We don’t imagine housing more than 15 or 20 animals, and even that number seems high, although it might be possible if we temporarily house animals while zoos renovate their facilities.
Who will take care of the gorillas? GH is currently staffed by top gorilla experts, Pete Halliday and Kelly Daugherty, with veterinary care provided by other professionals and experts. We will have additional support of the zoos whose gorillas we will house as well.
Can neighbors come to see the gorillas? Yes and no. We will NOT be open to the public, since a main goal of GH is to provide a quiet, non-stressful environment for the gorillas in our care. However as a goodwill gesture to reassure our neighbors and concerned individuals, we will allow visits - when we have worked out appropriate procedures and policies for handling visits. It also depends on the gorillas themselves. One individual gorilla may enjoy seeing new faces and another may be stressed by it, so depending who comes to GH, we'll decide our policy.
Will this become a tourist attraction? Absolutely NOT. We will continue to have visiting gorilla experts staying as our guests, but we will not draw attention to the project once we’re under way - we want to be a secret to all but our neighbors! We are also trying to fund this entirely ourselves, and although we might have to do fund-raising at some later point in time, this will be done by mail or other means. Gorilla Haven is strictly non-profit!
Then WHY are you doing this?!?! This is probably the most difficult question to explain to people. We’re giving up a comfortable retirement and lifestyle to benefit a few gorillas. Like a missionary or doctor who goes to Third World countries to help a cause or religion important to them, we too are giving up some creature-comforts to help in something near and dear to our hearts.
What’s the future for Gorilla Haven? We’d like to dedicate our entire 324 acres as a permanent wildlife preserve - with or without gorillas. With all the development, we hope to preserve a special part of this area.
How will GH impact the area? Impact on the area should be minimal. We would like to offer educational opportunities to students interested in wildlife and conservation, working with local schools, since we believe education is a critical factor in saving wildlife and people. Although job opportunities at GH will be limited for non-gorilla experts, we will continue to support local businesses by purchasing equipment, machinery and items from Fannin County and/or the Tri-State area whenever possible.
With human
suffering, how can you justify helping gorillas? A very good
question, but one easily answered. We believe everyone and
everything put on Earth has a purpose in the larger scheme of things. While our efforts
concentrate on helping a small population of gorillas, that in no
way implies we care more for animals than humans. We have chosen
our little part to play and urge others to follow their passions
and hearts in helping whatever cause is important to them. We
make no judgment about those who may not share our love or
concern for wildlife and hope we can be treated with similar
tolerance and understanding.
We don’t need gorillas in Fannin County! Gorillas live all over the world in a variety of zoo settings, including living literally across the street from people! Zoo Atlanta has about 20 gorillas, including world famous gorillas like Willie B. (deceased February 2000) and Ivan, the shopping mall gorilla. In Toledo, Ohio, the gorillas’ outdoor yard can be watched from the houses across the street, and gorillas used to live in New York’s Central Park Zoo, right across from the apartments of the rich and famous!
If God intended gorillas to be in Fannin County, He’d have put them here! We believe we found the perfect place for GH in Fannin County, and if God brought US here and gave us the talents, good fortune and passion to make our small difference in His world, then maybe that's precisely why we are here in Fannin county helping gorillas. In today’s global society, nothing is in its original spot any longer, and with all the development, pollution and destruction of nature, we hope our neighbors will appreciate our attempts at keeping a small part of nature intact, even if we share it with some of God’s creatures they don’t appreciate or understand.
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Gorillas’ Family Life in the Wild and in Zoos:
Gorillas live
in family groups with a dominant male, called the silverback, who
rules his family with a firm yet gentle manner. Several females
and their offspring complete the family group, who spend their
days eating, resting and playing together, following the
silverback’s lead on where to travel to find food. When a
young male becomes a "teenager" or blackback, tension
starts to mount as the younger male starts competing for the
females. In the wild, the younger male is usually driven off,
away from his family group. Sometimes they find females also
ready to leave their family group and a new group is then formed.
Or, if females are scarce, a group of young males will form a
loosely knit group called a ‘bachelor’ group, where
they will feed and travel together, while waiting for the chance
to one day have their own family.
Zoos tend to house gorillas in family groups, with one silverback and several females and their offspring, to mimic conditions in the wild. Lately, however, more male gorillas have been born in zoos, creating a surplus of male gorillas, which is one of the main reasons GH was created. Since only one (or possibly two) silverbacks can be housed in one zoo enclosure, it is easy to see how too many male gorillas born can and has created a problem - there simply aren’t enough zoo enclosures for each male to have his own group!
Bachelor
groups are now being formed in zoos all over the world, including
in Atlanta, GA, Memphis, TN and Birmingham, AL. Since bachelor
groups in the wild do not appear to be very long-lasting (since
with luck the males eventually find their own females to form
groups), it is still unknown how long bachelor groups can or will
last in zoos. GH hopes to be able to assist the zoo world in
resolving some of these problems.
Some Famous Gorillas You May Already Know:
Willie B - Zoo Atlanta’s most famous silverback gorilla, now father to two babies after living alone, without ever seeing another gorilla, for almost 30 years. Sadly, Willie died February 2000, but his family and legacy lives on at Zoo Atlanta.
Ivan - Another resident of Zoo Atlanta, Ivan spent almost 30 years alone in a shopping mall in Tacoma, WA, before recently coming to Atlanta where he saw his first gorillas since his early childhood. At the end of January, Ivan was observed mating for the first time! Way to go Ivan!!
Binti Jua - Made famous in 1996 when she gently carried a little boy who had fallen into the gorilla enclosure to her keepers for help at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Binti is a typical, normal gorilla.
Jambo - In the late 1980’s another little boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at Jersey Zoo, in Great Britain. Jambo, a 400 lb silverback, gently stroked the injured boy’s back, keeping the other curious gorillas at bay, until rescuers could get to the boy.
(Note: In both these cases the little boys’ injuries were caused 100% by their fall and the negligence of their parents, and NOT by the gorillas! Also, both boys recovered with no permanent injuries and are doing well today.)
Koko - Probably the world’s most famous real-life gorilla, Koko’s made the cover of National Geographic with her pet kitten. Koko’s been in an on-going study of gorilla intelligence since the mid 1970’s and communicates using ASL, the sign language of the deaf!
Max - When a suspect running from police jumped into a gorilla enclosure at a South African zoo, Max the gorilla quickly defended his mate from human intruders, which included the police, causing no serious harm before being shot by the suspect, who was then shot by the police. Max is recovering from his wounds and has been called a "hero" by local press. The suspect made a formal apology to the gorilla and is also recovering - in jail.
King Kong - The worst thing that could have happened to gorillas, this mythical creature is not based on anything other than Hollywood’s fears and imagination.
Email
or write to:
GORILLA HAVEN, P.O. Box 210, Morganton, GA 30560 for more information.
