Volume 3, No. 19. October 10,2003
Keeping a firm grip
Speaking of embracing and orangutans, in a year when reports of animals getting
out of enclosures are dominating zoo news in the media, one such escape could
have a long-term effect on zoo operations around the world, not because of any
tragic ending but because the people involved responded so right to something
so rare. And it wasn’t an escape but an orangutan getting into an enclosure
before he was supposed to.
The incident occurred
in August at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York, when Lowell, a 19-year-old
male, gained access to one side of 1931-built dual cage enclosure where zoo
volunteer Paul Louis was cleaning. The 300-pound orang, which had come to the
zoo two years before from the Wildlife Sanctuary in Los Angeles, California,
grabbed hold of Louis’ leg and wouldn’t let go as they fell out of
the cage through the keepers’ door.
Louis didn’t
panic. Nor did he try to escape. He calmly talked with Lowell and patted his
head as they walked down a hallway and then returned to the cage, where Lowell
actually helped Louis back up into the enclosure, all the while grasping the
volunteer’s leg. “Paul remained amazingly calm,” said Shaunta
Collier-Santos, public relations and marketing manager for Seneca Park Zoo Society.
That calm remained
as Jeff Wyatt, the zoo’s director of animal health and conservation, arrived
and began talking Lowell through husbandry behavior, first to determine whether
to use a tranquilizer dart gun on the orangutan or to use a hand injection.
As Lowell responded to all commands correctly, Wyatt said, “Give me your
shoulder.” Lowell complied, and once tranquilized he released his grip
on Louis. The whole episode lasted no more than 15 minutes, Collier-Santos said,
and occurred in the hour before the zoo opened to the general public but after
members had gained early admission. Only a couple of guests where near the orangutan
enclosure at the time.
The hero was Louis,
precisely because he reacted exactly as he should. “Did he ever,”
Collier-Santos said. “I have to say he was so calm that it was almost unbelievable.
We had folks from 911, the police and (EMTs), and we had to force him to get
his vitals checked. Then we told him to go home, and he said, ‘No, I’ve
got to go back and finish my work.’ He was adamant about doing his duties.
And he’s still volunteering.”
At the time Louis
had only been volunteering at Seneca Park Zoo three months, and his reaction
to the episode highlighted how volunteers need training in such protocols, though
he had never himself been fully prepared for such a possibility. “There
is orientation for volunteers, do’s and don’t’s, but not that
in-depth,” Collier-Santos said. “We do train them on animal escape
protocol, tell them what they should do. But we’ve never built any drills
around that. Now we do.”
Collier-Santos said all the protocols in place for animal escapes were “followed to the letter,” though the animal didn’t escape. “We had been practicing and going through drills to prepare for animal escapes. But we’d never practiced anything with a hostage situation.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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