During the Epcot Thing trip, my day at Animal Kingdom brought a real 'Wild Kingdom' moment to life before my eyes. Note: there is a little bit of gore - but rest assured - Disney staff at AK was on scene and monitoring everything - they've been through this before, and the behavior is normal in the wild. Injuries are treated, and the challengers will be separated in the future so there are no further injuries. I'm always drawn to the gorilla exhibit...but this time nature was all too real. Like most animal groups, gorillas have an 'alpha' male, who is the leader of the group. His is the final word, and he enforces the law. But when younger male gorillas grow older, it is natural for them to want to take over as the new alpha - to demonstrate their strength and power. Sometimes, another gorilla will even 'partner' with the challenger, hoping to get preferencial treatment from the new leader if he succeeds. Here, you can see the challenger, and in the background, his partner in crime: Meanwhile, the reigning alpha male was letting himself be heard, and his power demonstrated, to his challengers - he wouldn't be going down easily: It's like a scene out of Little Red Riding Hood - 'my grandma, those are big teeth you have!': I couldn't get a shot of the scuffle, as they conducted their battle behind the tree line - but a tense 10 minutes of loud calls, thumping chests, trees crashing, and ground-pounding ensued, with only brief glimpses of brown fur as they ran around behind the trees and rocks battling. In the end, the alpha male reappeared at the top of the hill, still large-and-in-charge. For a while, the challenger and his partner were out of sight...but finally, a furry back appeared in the distance behind the rocks - and by using all 730mm of my zoom, I was able to see the result of his losing battle: What was really rewarding during this exchange was that I was shooting right where the three trainers/keepers were observing this fight, and they all had their walkie-talkies out discussing the strategy and keeping other trainers behind the scenes up to date with the fight. They were straining to see what had happened - the naked eye seemed to reveal a small red mark on the back of one, and a small red mark on the neck of another - but they couldn't really make out the details. I had just zoomed in on that cut, and pulled up the shot on my 3" LCD - zooming in more to show them the gash. They were quite appreciative, and got on the walkie talkie to describe the length and depth of the cut so they could plan treatment. I even took a few extra shots for them not for photographic merit, but just to show them closeups of cuts or scuffs on the gorillas so they could appraise the damage. It was great to be helpful for the gorillas, and know that they will be treated for their injuries, rather than having some of these injuries go unnoticed and untreated. Comments, critique, questions welcome as always.
Wow...probably something you may never witness again. Great photos! I'm kind of happy about it. Looks like Disney has provided an environment which allows them to be gorillas and they let them. I wonder what would happen if a gorilla was killed though. I'm sure that would have been splashed everywhere. Get any indication how far the keepers would have let it go if they thought that was a possibility?
Very nice photo's and good job on helping out the trainers. That looks like a good gash in the fur there. I am sure that they were probably deciding on whether or not to "stitch it up or leave it be"
I got the feeling that they were concerned, but not looking to 'zoo-ify' them...they knew this was part of the natural order for gorillas, but at the same time, they control their fate since they do have the ability to put them in different sections or move them out to the main area in shifts. They seemed to be taking a watch-and-monitor stance - there truly was very little they could do at the time. I don't think they can go into the gorilla enclosures, and the only way to separate them would be to open the gates to the night enclosures and hope the gorillas come. Once they've got them in back, they can separate them into their own pens, and from there, they can move the challengers to the other side with the females, or let out the alpha male and non-challenging gorillas in one shift, then rotate the two challengers in another. I know they've lost a few animals there - mostly to sickness...but I seem to recall an incident with the gorillas back in 2000 or 2001, where this same alpha male actually killed a challenger. I guess it can happen, and keepers are pretty much at a loss to do anything about it (I certainly don't want to try to pry two 500Lb gorillas apart!). In this case, the challenger seems to have taken the hint, and stayed very far away from the alpha for the rest of the time I was there. I'm sure if they can do anything to prevent another death, they will...but they can't (and probably shouldn't) stop the natural skirmishes and behavior of the gorillas in asserting their dominance over their troup.
