Joe's still enjoying the outside

photos by Steuart and/or Jane Dewar
Note: almost all photographs are thumbnails that you can click to bring up a larger version!

by Jane Dewar, 06Jul2004

I still re-play the video of Joe’s first day outside at GH and smile from ear to ear. Seeing Joe outside regularly seems like he’s been here forever and it’s a real privilege to witness. We’re just back from a Gorilla Workshop held in Calgary, Canada, where we gave a presentation about GH called “Gorilla Haven: Field of Dreams – From Concept to Reality.” Virtually everyone who spoke to me afterwards said they cried, they almost cried or they wanted to cry when they saw where Joe had been and how far he’s come. Everyone, including several world renowned gorilla caregivers and experts agreed, he looked mighty fine for an old man (any gorilla over 40 is considered “old” but Joe could outlive the longest living gorilla in captivity, Philadelphia Zoo’s Massa, who died when he was approximately 54 years old).

It was fun seeing old friends in Calgary as well as making new ones. Joe’s longtime friend, Sue Woods, gave a presentation on Joe and how his behavior has changed from his time in Denver and in Brownsville, both in the gorilla group and while he was isolated, as well as at Gorilla Haven. One comment made me giggle – apparently, Sue concluded Joe didn’t like to be on the grass while at his previous zoos. You’d never know that now, looking at him at GH. It’s a good lesson, not to give up on these amazingly intelligent, sensitive and wonderful animals.

Joe is always cracking me up. I didn’t see him for 2 weeks and when I visited this weekend when Stephanie, his caregiver from Texas and his first few months at GH came to visit, Joe just snapped his fingers at me – his way of saying “What did you bring me to eat?” I’d brought a small watermelon (he has me well trained), which he devoured, as he showered in watermelon juice. Several weeks early, I’d presented his mini watermelon with baby corn, baby carrots and pea pods (see photo left, then Joe enjoying it, below right)) in it.

One of Joe’s favorites is corn on the cob, which he eats from the bottom up, instead of side to side, the way most humans eat it. I’m not sure if Joe had ever seen baby corn, but when he took out the piece from his treat, he started to eat it from the bottom up, reminding me of the Tom Hanks character in the movie “Big” when confronted with baby corn at a fancy function. In the movie, Tom Hanks ate the corn side to side, as if it were a big ear of corn, instead of just eating it whole, as it’s intended. Watching Joe recognize it was still corn and trying to eat it the way he ate other corn, gave an insight to gorillas’ intelligence, as well as being too funny to watch. Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of Joe doing it, and now he’s wise to baby corn and pops it in his mouth like grapes!

 

Recent Visitors and new GH Board of Advisor members

In early June we had the head of the Gorilla SSP (Species Survival Plan), Dan Wharton, visit with an SSP management team member, Jan Rafert, and a longtime gorilla caregiver, Ann Rademacher.  We spent some 2 ½ days brainstorming and touring the GH facilities with the Dan-Ann-Jan team and got a better understanding of what GH can do working with the zoo world to accomplish the important part of our mission statement: “to help make each and every captive gorilla’s life as natural and enriched as possible….” 

Jan and Ann agreed to join the GH Board of Advisors, about which we are thrilled – you can read more about them and their fellow advisors by clicking here …..

On June 12, 2004, Pete wrote this email account of Joe’s adventures outdoors, which is so funny I thought I’d share it here verbatim (with Pete’s blessing):

This morning I gave Joe access to the habitat around 8:30 and proceeded to clean inside the building, leaving him shut out. I noticed that he was out in the habitat, just sitting on the grass looking mellow. Around 45 mins later I hear a pokka- pokka-pokka, which I thought was unusual , then I went outside the building and heard a woodpecker, so I thought maybe I had heard that and not Joe. (Editor’s Note: some of our woodpeckers really do make sounds eerily similar to a distant chestbeat of a gorilla!).

Ten minutes later I go down to get hay and as I'm putting a bale in the back of the mule I hear wraaagh-pokka-pokka-pokka, so I think "well that wasn't a woodpecker, or if it was, I don't want to meet it". So, as soon as I get back to the villa I go and look at Joe. He is calmly sitting on the grass and gives me one of his Queen Victoria "We are not amused" looks. No sign of anything that would have caused an alarm bark and chestbeat.

I'm putting hay in the cages when I hear Blang (accompanied by the building vibrating) wraagh-pokka-pokka-pokka. Once again I go out and Joe, using his laser vision, is trying to incinerate two squirrels frolicking on a branch about 30' from him. The laser vision isn't working today, so he makes dismissive gestures with his right hand, signaling them that they may leave now. The squirrels ignore him.

Construction Update

Construction of the 6,000 sq. ft. Group Building has begun with the pouring of the knee walls and building pad, despite an unusually rainy spring and summer. Emma villa's electrical and plumbing work is now complete and the sheeting of the interior walls will begin next week. The outside cages for Emma are finished (but not yet installed) and our steelworker (David Stite’s SEMCO) will be starting work on fabrication of the inside cages this next week as well. We are also taking the opportunity to make some minor design changes with Emma Villa based on our experiences at Silverback.

 I was pretty much ready to let him back in, so I lock up and open the doors to inside. 10 seconds later he comes crashing in, all puffed up and smelling like he has just showered in Calvin Kline EauD'Armpit, scattering hay everywhere because it is obviously MY fault that the trees are full of rude/alien/fluffy/demonic/fast/disobedient/gray creatures. I concluded that Joe must have led a very sheltered life.

Pete Halliday

BIG Thank You’s to Chisato Abe and Federal Express!

Chisato Abe is a world renowned artist from Japan, who has been a good friend to gorillas for years.  We’re happy she’s also our friend.  In the past, she has donated large portraits of individual gorillas, or sold them to raise funds for gorilla conservation.  Los Angeles Zoo received a huge portrait of their beloved silverback, Caesar (photo right), who sadly and ironically died unexpectedly while at Zoo Atlanta, where he’d come to hopefully take over Willie B.’s group. Years earlier, Chisato presented Zoo Atlanta with a wonderful oversized portrait of Willie B. as well (photo left with Chisato Abe).  The portraits were magnificent, but Chisato donated them freely, so each zoo had a permanent record of their special silverbacks.

Chisato’s art shows an insight into gorillas’ souls that only someone with a passion, love and deep respect (not to mention some real artistic talent) could create. Anyone who loves gorillas can see the nuances and subtleties Chisato catches, in the gestures, moods and spirit of the gorillas she portrays in her art.  Gorillas are lucky to have her as a friend.

When Chisato visited Joe in October 2003, she mentioned that she had done his portrait based on a photograph we’d sent her. While we didn’t know what to expect, we knew it would be wonderful.  For several months, we didn’t know how we’d get the huge portrait from Japan to Gorilla Haven, but we knew Federal Express had transported the Caesar and Willie B. portraits to Los Angeles and Atlanta, respectively. 

So I sent in a request to Federal Express’ headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee and was pleasantly surprised when we heard back that they would fly the portrait of Joe from Japan and deliver it to us at Gorilla Haven at no charge!  FedEx is known for its donations to charities including humanitarian aid and while we weren’t surprised at their generosity, we were thrilled.

Now, we need to build our conference center to display Joe’s portrait in a more appropriate setting, since it dwarfs our furniture in our cabin home, as you can see from the photo (which measures 4'4" by 6'4"!).  We could put it in the Administration Building, but Steuart is determined to enjoy it daily, so it will stay in the cabin for a while.

 

 

Photo right shows Chisato sketching Joe for future artwork. The image on the left is a quick sketch Chisato did when Joe was watching me through the window, to give you an idea of how the artwork begins.