Tea time for gorillas

Hoots and screams echoed through the tunnel system below the sleeping cages. They were getting louder, closer and soon the chimps would jump out of a trap door in the floor. I stood in front of the hole, heart pounding, realizing that I forgot to put in the ear plugs required when working with chimps. They came up quickly, one by one, some stopping to scream at me through the thick Plexiglass windows before moving to one of the sleeping cages to gather up their loot. Chimps are frugivores and they get a variety of sweet fruits for dinner - pineapple, tomatoes, apples, bananas, kiwis, etc. The zoo keepers scatter the food around the sleeping cages and the animals grab up handfuls before settling in to eat. Within a minute, the hoots disolved into quiet, messy munching.

Given that there is not much for a chimp to do at the zoo, they get very excited about food. There are several meals a day: breakfast, second breakfast (just like Hobbits), lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner. They know the schedule and start making noise 5-10 min before the next meal - how do they know this? Not sure. I'll see more feedings this week and try to figure out if the other apes have this inner food clock. Maybe they just get hungry.

The gorillas are a different case. I didn't witness their arrival, only their peaceful munching. Gorillas are vegetarians and graze on leaves all day. For dinner they get lettuce, carrots, and other legumes. I can't fathom how a beast gets to be the size of Gorgo, the alpha male, on a vegetable diet. All of the gorillas are big, but he is particularly huge and frightening. I stood 2 feet away, not looking at his eyes, while his low guttural grunt shook the air around me. Dian Fossey was nuts.

The gorillas refuse to use the inside water dispensers so the zoo keepers had to come up with an innovative solution. It turns out that these guys like tea, mixed with yogurt - go figure. So each ape gets to drink the solution out of a gardener's watering pitcher. Gorgo sucks down several liters in a few seconds.