They were very excited. The people, of course the newspapers and television were very excited about this because it was the first. In fact, Dave Garroway, some people may remember Dave as the premier person on television for news and early morning in those days. And he arranged to come… Read More
What do I do?… Read More
I need some kind of a nursery, an exhibit space too where the visitors could see this baby without interfering with the raising of it, but still being able to see it. And the city, the city operated the zoo. They immediately started building an animal nursery onto the great… Read More
By the way, a baby gorilla at that time weighed four and a quarter pounds. So we immediately found the nearest thing to a bassinet that we could put it in with a bunch of scrap dust cloths. And there was a cardboard box. And so that’s how the first… Read More
You immediately called the director of the zoo?… Read More
Oh yes. Earl Davis came over immediately, right after we came over. Earl was great for taking pictures, so he immediately started taking pictures. And as I look at those pictures, I think, God, what a fabulous thing that happened to us. People were excited. They were crying. Read More
They were calling their friends, what was going on?… Read More
Was Warren alone in the building?… Read More
Warren was alone in the building and he immediately called for the closest person. And that was a fellow named Terry Strasser, who was a very good artist in the early days and still is a very good artist. Read More
And Terry ran over there, I ran over there and there we were, looking at this baby gorilla and we thought, “Now what do we do?” We didn’t know whether it was a premature, who knew what a baby gorilla should weigh, you know?… Read More
Excuse me one second. Warren was alone in the building. (indistinct) this cable out from your foot. Oh, okay. There we go. Thank you. Okay. Alright, go ahead. Read More
Would you ask that again?… Read More
Thanks. Read More
And Warren’s separated the female very quickly, got into that youngster and opened it up where it could breathe and that’s why we have that gorilla today. Read More
Was Warren alone in the building when this happened?… Read More
Now, did you have to do some additions to this when the gorillas, as they were getting older, did you have to do something to teeth proof it?… Read More
We didn’t have to make changes in the building itself because the building was built with that in mind that you would have what the gorillas needed at that time. We didn’t know a lot about keeping gorillas, as you can imagine in those days compared to what we’re doing… Read More
So now the gorillas progress in age, did you know the female was pregnant?… Read More
Earl Davis and Don Davis and Warren Thomas and I were all involved with the gorillas at the same time. Don and Warren, because he came on weekends, he was in veterinary school at Ohio State University and he had aspirations of being in the zoo business. So they decided… Read More
No, there were not very many gorillas and certainly none that were breeding, no one had ever seen a gorilla breed in captivity, let alone give birth. Read More