One of the most annoying things for me at the zoo, is hearing people state how sad the animals look. While walking along the path within the gorilla kingdom, a woman in front was saying to her child how sorry she feels for the animals, before even seeing them. Inside, a very mellow, dare I say content Kumbuka sat gazing at us, while this woman repeated again how sad he looked, I think he was just sad that his true beauty was obscured by that artwork and reflective glass I turned to the Colobus until the moaning minnie left, but when I approached Kumbuka again, another woman appeared with a small group of kids ... and immediately commented on how miserable Kumbuka looked. Not the best start to my visit.
You did well to get a good shot of Kumbuka, given the lighting and particularly all that painted greenery that covers the glass nowadays. Its supposed to give them more privacy since Kumbuka reacted badly to the proximity of visitors- though I doubt the gorillas get any benefit at all from it, while it obstructs viewing hugely, making it the worst gorilla exhibit for viewing that I know.
The over-riding comment most visitors make about gorillas( and orangs) is'sadness'- they have no conception this is the ape's normal relaxed expression and bears no relation to the emotion related to a similar expression in human beings.
@Pertinax I used to have bookmark for a page exploding anti zoo claims and 'sad monkeys' was definitely on there. Last time a Twycross, a visitor tried to educate another woman for making the same mistake, but she wasn't interested.
@littleRedPanda When they kept Orangutans in the Sobell Pavilions at ZSL, they even had a permanent notice about the facial musculature of the Orangutan making them appear 'sad' but people still believe this myth.
Yes, well done on managing to take such a good photo of my favourite gorilla. I saw a lot of him when he was at Paignton and agree that he looks quite content. Indeed, that was the impression I got of him on my last visit to ZSL, and that all is well in his world
@Gigit Actually I think he's been perfectly content there ever since he arrived. The close proximity of the public and large sections of close-up viewing excited/stimulated him so that he displayed a lot, broke windows etc but its not that unusual. It just made headlines because he's at ZSL. Given his background he settled in and even started breeding remarkably quickly which was a surprise to me- I think he is much calmer now as he matures also.
