Well... D'uh!

Gorillas are wonderful creatures that speak to our deeps. When most people see one in the flesh or even in a photograph they usually take a moment, however brief, to reflect on their own humanity. After all, we share 97 per cent of our DNA with the Great Apes and are descended from the same ancestors. We are closely related.

So when I saw a picture of a family of Lowland Gorillas at play in a Canadian magazine I started to read the article. It concerned the inhabitants of Toronto Zoo. Every Zoo has, as a star attraction, along with the Big Cats, a couple of Gorillas or in the bad old days of London Zoo one very lonely one, in that case called Guy. Toronto has seven.

Leaving aside the whole question of Zoos and their right to keep wild animals for the moment, and leaving aside my own personal views since the great Silverback at LA Zoo threw one of his own turds at me (completely uncalled for, I had been nothing but respectful), the article concerned some troubling trends with the world's captive Gorillas. It seems that in every zoo their populations are becoming obese. Rolls of fat hanging round their torsos (the pot-bellies it seems are perfectly natural which I personally took great comfort from). Not only that but a behaviour, not seen in the wild, is becoming endemic. That is, the voluntary re-gurgitation and re-eating of their food.

Toronto Zoo has been at the forefront of research into these areas and has come up with a solution. Gorillas are vegetarian, browsing animals (unlike chimpanzees) who in the wild spend most of the day eating low energy, high fibre food. Bark, leaves and grass with the occasional treat of berries when they can be found. But in zoos they are fed a brick of much higher energy grains called Gorilla Biscuit and the floor of their enclosures are scattered with fruits like, apples, bananas and oranges for them to rummage through, all high in sugars and energy. The result is that their diet is a rich one (hence the obesity) and they can get all the nutrition they need in a short feeding time leaving the rest of the day free for them to twiddle their opposing thumbs. Many zoos give them toys to play with, which on the whole the Gorillas tend to shove into a corner and pretend aren't there, preferring instead to bring up their food so they can have the pleasure of eating it again.

Toronto's solution? To give the animals A SIMILAR DIET TO THE ONE THEY HAVE IN THE WILD! Really? D'ya think? The Gorillas have shed between 15 and 20 pounds each over the last few months and are some of the healthiest in North America. There is even a plan afoot to purchase some land to grow the type of trees they like so that their diet is completely sustainable.

While the zoo at Toronto is to be congratulated (It is completely privately financed and has one of the most progressive breeding programs in the world) I was amazed that in this day and age a feeding regime like that was not common practice everywhere. I was equally surprised that it would take so much time, research and presumably money to come up with, what might seem, such an obvious solution.

But then perhaps not. Man is a simple creature who takes time to work out things that come naturally to the higher order mammals... Like Gorillas.