A CAPTIVE GORILLA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19475, 15 December 1925, Page 5

A CAPTIVE GORILLA

NEW YORK ZOO SPECIMEN. “AS MEEK AS A LAMB.” What is claimed to be the only living female gorilla in captivity, and the third of her species to sot foot on American soil, was taken to the Bronx Zoo, New York, in October, by a noted African big-game hunter, Mr Benjamin Burbridge, of Jacksonville, Florida, who had just returned from an expoditioon. He captured the girilla in the heart of the Belgian Congo, and named her “Congo,” after that State. The gorilla was about four years old when she arrived in New York, weigh ed 65 pounds, and stood a little over three feet high. Her coat resembled that of an American grizzly bear. While possessing the enormous strength characteristic of her species, “Congo” was as meek as a lamb. Mr Burbridge related his method of i capturing young gorillas. He said that I leopards attack the young, with the ! result that whenever a mother gorilla hears the cry of a leopard she goes out to do battle with it. Her offspring are thus temporarily left unprotected and can be taken. The practie had its risks, for sometimes the full-grown gorilla, hearing the noise behind it, returns before it was expected. Only one other person besides Mr Burbridge, it is stated, has succeeded in capturing a gorilla and bringing it out of the jungle alive. The other was the famous English explorer, Miss Alyce Cunningham. Mr Burbridge has captured four gorillas, two of which are still living.