Australia - Female gorilla beaten to death in male's 'unprecedented' attack at zoo

A 33-year-old female gorilla has died of her injuries after she was attacked by the young male leader of the group at Melbourne zoo. Keepers say such a lethal attack is unprecedented and the 13-year-old male, Otana, had not shown overly aggressive behaviour before.

Julia, the female, was discovered injured Saturday morning after staff noticed she was unwell and had spent the night in a cave away from the rest of the group. Vets were unable to save her as her injuries were too severe.

Otana was brought to Australia from the UK in 2013 and appeared to have settled in well. Julia had bred with the previous leader of the group, Motaba, but he had been 'retired' from the breeding program. Otana has now been separated while devastated staff decide what to do.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...killed-attack-male-leader-otana-melbourne-zoo

Interesting, and very sad. My thoughts are with the staff.
:heartbeat:

Oh my god, I wonder at zoo's sometimes, I watched a show about a couple of tiger cubs over the last few weeks here, and as soon as the cubs were a few weeks old they took them off the mother and a zookeeper raised them at home, I was disgusted. Humans interfering with animals as if we know what is best, in this case introducing a male from another country to a female who had another partner, we don't know enough about the complexity of animal relationships to constantly decide who should live with who and how etc. Zoo's are cruel.

Really sad.


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