The Great Escape—Animal Style!
Both the determination of the human spirit and the cleverness of man have inspired everyone who has seen The Great Escape. Although few actually escaped, many tried. Are there similar experiences by our non-human friends? You betcha!
In June 1990, Cheyenne, a 127-pound orangutan, unscrewed four bolts to escape from the Kansas City Zoo. Freedom lasted a mere 20 minutes. In January 2004, Gracie, a chimpanzee, escaped from the Los Angeles Zoo. This was her fifth jailbreak. Her freedom lasted 45 minutes. Earlier in 1993 Gracie and two other chimps grabbed a rope tossed to them by a visitor and made a break for it. In August 2003 Lowell, a 300-pound orangutan, escaped from the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York. Lowell was wise to the ways of the world. He grabbed a volunteer as a hostage and carried him through the exit. Lowell seemed to know that if security tried to use tranquilizer darts, there was a good chance they would miss him and hit the volunteer. After thinking about the whole matter for 15 minutes, he climbed back into his cage. It was just about dinnertime. In September 1992, Kongo, a 500-pound gorilla, escaped while being moved to a different cage. Two keepers tried to stand up to him. Neither apparently was familiar with the 500-pound gorilla jokes. The two keepers were subsequently hospitalized. After the gorilla was tranquilized he was dragged back to his cage. No Med-Evac for the big guy. It seems everyone else in the neighborhood was familiar with those 500-pound gorilla jokes.
There have been several mass escape attempts. In May 2005, 47 monkeys escaped from the Tulane Primate Center. The monkeys had watched carefully as the cage was opened and closed. Need we mention the old adage: “Monkey see. Monkey do.” A spokesman for the Primate Center assured the public that the monkeys were to be used for breeding purposes, not experimentation. Someone forgot to mention that to the monkeys. In April 2005, 31 chimps escaped from their cages at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. They used sticks to get through a sliding metal door. Need we mention the old adage: “Monkey see. Monkey do.” The chimps then tried to carjack a taxi. When the driver refused to relinquish the cab he was pulled from the driver’s seat and killed. When the chimps discovered that none of them could drive, they all scrambled away on foot. A spokesman for the sanctuary explained, “We never thought they could use sticks to destroy the door. We are dealing with a species that is very intelligent.”
Who would ever have guessed? A TV special a few years ago highlighted a group of Jamaican monkeys. They lived just outside a fancy resort. They kept an eye out for tourists on the patio—especially tourists who had ordered drinks. If a tourist should be momentarily distracted by, let’s say, a bathing beauty in the swimming pool, his drink permanently vanished. The resort no doubt sold a lot of drinks. The monkeys were all quite tipsy by the end of the day.
About twelve years ago we visited Gibraltar. We stopped for a spectacular view and walked a short distance from our car. When we returned there were three monkeys (actually Barbary Apes) on a VW van next to our car. They were sitting and enjoying the scenery. When they spotted us they all put their hands out, oblivious to all the signs that said, “Do not feed the monkeys!” A young lady in our party decided it would make a nice photo. She took out her camera and turned toward the monkeys. They all grimaced and immediately covered their eyes. Who would have guessed?
A gripping love story developed in India back in 1994. Madhubala, a domesticated elephant, was chained to a tree in the village of Gumla. A bull elephant spotted her and it was love at first sight. The villagers, sensing a possible crisis, soon began tossing firecrackers and other objects at this interloper. He became momentarily flustered and fled back into the safety of the jungle. That night he returned and broke her chains and the two fled Gumla for a brief honeymoon. A few days later Madhubala was captured and returned to her village. Everyone it seems forgot to ask permission from the groom. In a fury he returned and flattened much of the village and rescued his true love. No one it seems had ever told them a 500-pound gorilla joke. This time no one went in search for Madhubala. 7000-pound elephants are no laughing matter.
Saturday might seem like a good day for odd chores. At least that appeared to be the case for Freddy Buckland. In April 2006, he decided that would be a fine day to remove a tree that had fallen against a crocodile enclosure outside the Corroboree Park Tavern. No sooner had he fired up the saw, when Brutus, a large croc, jumped out of the water and raced toward Buckland—not to escape, but to lodge a protest about being unable to sleep through the noise. Brutus then ripped the chainsaw out of his hands and chomped on it for over an hour. Neither Buckland nor anyone else made an attempt to retrieve the saw. They had heard plenty of 500-pound gorilla jokes.
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# posted by north to alaska @ 9:04 PM
