November 14, 2025 • 28 mins
Did you know the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is home to 11 gorillas? This week, Marco is going behind the scenes at the bachelor habitat to learn more about the “jock” of the great ape family. Tune in to discover how they obtain their silverbacks, how you can donate your old cell phone to support conservation efforts, and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ruby when as this world a Marco went and this
is Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife
from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This podcast is in production with Iheartradios, Ruby Studio and
San Diego Zoo Wild lef Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation
organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and the Safari
Parkme Man, everyone, I am having the best morning, as
you probably all guess. I'm my favorite place of the
(00:42):
entire world. I'm at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
This is a town where I grew up in Escondido,
and we're gonna be talking about something really unique. It's
not a bird. I know a lot of you thinking
I'm talking to bird, but no, it's actually a mammal.
But also I wanted to reference something really fast because
I'm sure you're wondering. You know, you're probably wonder why
you don't hear Rick along with this conversation. I just
(01:03):
wanted to update everyone. Rick actually won't be joining me
on the remaining episodes of this season, but you know
he is amazing and wish him all the best. I
think the soundcrewk could probably quein some applause for m
Let's get some ride of applause for Rick. Oh yeah,
and so well deserved. But don't worry everyone, because I
(01:23):
got you. We got some wicked adventures for the remaining
part of this season, and today I am actually in
a part where most guests probably have never seen before,
at the Safari Park. So I am Well, first, I'll
talk about the human that I'm with right now. So Ami,
got do me a favorite? Can you tell me your
name and your role here at the Safari Park.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Hi, I'm Sam. I'm one of the wildlife care specialists
that takes care of the girl is.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Here at the start Park.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh that's awesome, Sam, thank you so much for taking
the time. I super appreciate it. I guess it sounds
like I'm whispering a little bit because this place, I think,
just like it gives you such a vibe, you know,
this place that we're rat Can you describe for our listeners,
like where exactly are we in the Safari Park right now?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So right now we are actually behind the scenes what
we call our bachelor habitat. It's very behind the scenes,
so pretty much the only way that you can either
see it is going on whenever behind the scenes tour
or sometimes if you're up in the balloon, you can
actually see the habitat all the way over here.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh I didn't know that. So in the balloon safari
you can get on that and see some of the habitat.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, you can see part of the habitat. I've never
done it. I'm a little bit of afraid of height.
But some of my other colleagues have done it, and
when they went up there, they're like, oh, my gosh,
did you know that you could see the bachelor habitat
up there?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I totally get the phobias, my friend. For me, it's
a cubicle, to be honest with you. So that's why
I'm so stoked here. And you know, to describe it
a little bit too for our listener. So we're in
an off site area that Sam was mentioning there is
a tour involved here, right, that you were mentioning that
guests can come and actually experience this really unique habitat.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Right, Yeah, some of our ultimate tours as well as
our behind the scenes tours. You guys get to come
by here and get to drive right past our guerrillas.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
When you get to see them.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Sometimes when you go out into the Safaris on the
caravan Safari wait by Shafaris, Right, you go on the caravans,
you do get cruise back.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, they cruise by really quick.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Unfortunately those guys don't stop, but you do sometimes get
to see a quick glance of our bachelor habitat. Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Actually, Sam, that brings up a good point too, that
there are some tours that go past this particular part
of the safari park. But you also because you get
immersed in so many other senses, you know, because for instance,
for gorillas, for me, you're gonna lot, but this is
actually growing up here since I was sixteen. It's one
of my favorite smells of the s it's a gorillas now,
I know it's heavy testosterone smell, especially when we're talking
(03:32):
about the boys here, right for sure. Its right. So
if you're in a Wildlife Safari tour or to your point,
the Ultimate tours, you'll be able to not only possibly
see one of these handsome gorillas, but also smell these
amazing animals too.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Sometimes we can definitely tell when the boys are a
little bit more rallied up. They're going either you know,
some testosterone surges. We can smell them from outside their buildings.
We can from even just driving up. We're like, ooh,
we can tell it's gonna be a fun day today
because we can tell that the boys are all around, it's.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Going to be a y Oh, that's interesting. I didn't
know it peaks sometimes considering their behavior. But you know,
before we get deep into the gorilla information, we're going
to talk about now, I'm sure maybe there's someone in
the world friend who like, never even heard of a gorilla.
Can you describe what a gorilla is? What makes them unique?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
So gorillas are part of the Grade eight family.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
These guys are super I like to say they are
the jock of the Grade eight family.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
They are a whole muscle.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
They sometimes, you know, they think and they react with
the big bangs, loud sounds. These guys are just super
docile though, you know, especially some of our older ones Winston.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
And oh yeah, Winston.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
And kim Me definitely. You know, as they get older,
they kind of become the grandparents.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
They come up a little bit slower.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
When we also get our y little youngsters like Leslie,
who just turned nine. I'll call her the little baby
because she is the youngest one of our troop, okay,
and she's super playful. She will run around with some
of the wildlife care specialists kind of doing a little
bit of a chase and behind the scenes areas or
(05:12):
before we open to the public and have visitors come by,
we'll run in the front and she'll chase us back
and forth.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
On the habitat. I've seen her move around. It's really
super shoot. Yeah. In fact, actually, since we're talking some
of the personalities and names, could you say how many
gorillas are thriving here at the Safari Park and their
names if you could?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
So we have eleven gorilla's total eleven.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
And our bachelor habitat we have five boys, so we
have Franken Monroe okay, and then what we have we
call the Bronx Boys, so we have Najemba, Mconzie and Mazzani.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
They actually came to us last November from the Bronx Zoo.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh. That's really cool.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Nice, yeah, really cool watching them. They're a little bit
younger than Franken Monroe, So Franken just turned seventeen, Monroe
is fourteen, and then Najemba is ten. He just turned
ten recently, and then Mconzie is also ten, and then
Mazzani is eleven.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh wow. And in case maybe our listeners don't know
that there's two habitats with gorillas here at this historic park, right,
so you just referenced we call it the bachelor habitat.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Is that a going to call it a bachelor habitat
because only the bachelor's live here. And then our main
habitat are our family troop Gorilla.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Forest, right, Gorilla Florest. Guess can actually walk up and
check it out on foot.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yes, at Gorilla Forest, we have six grillas there. So
we have Paul Don he's the silverback of that troop.
You can definitely tell him because he's the largest. He
has that silver back. Usually you can check him out,
and he's most of the time sleeping, if not eating.
That's usually his two favorite activities is sleeping and eating.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I mean, I can't blame him.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
That's my favorite activities as well as Then we have Jessica, Cammy,
Leslie Amani and Joe Ann and all of those are females.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, And there's we were talking about it before we
started recording. There's some relations, right, some familia ties. Going
on cently right, can you reference what's happening with Frank
and Paul Don specifically?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, So Frank and Paul Don are father's son, So
Paul Down is Frank's dad.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
And then another tie is Cammy is actually Paul Don's mother.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
WHOA.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
So Cammy is Frank's grandma.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Will And she's I think she's my personal favorite. I
gotta say, she's so.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Cute, so many people love her.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You can definitely tell her because she has the biggest belly,
you know, And I.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Mean she's our grandma Cammy.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Sometimes, you know, after forty seven years, gravity kind of
takes over a little bit. You get a few extra sweets,
you know, your metabolism slows down a little bit.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
And that's okay.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I feel some parents right now like not in their
heads up and down, like we all feel about Yeah,
we totally care. Oh I love that, And you know,
I'm sure a lot of listeners are were too. But
there's a uniqueness between Frank and Monroe because if I'm
a mistaken Monroe was born here at the Safari Park, right, ye,
But Frank was not right down at the San Diego Zoo.
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
So Frank was actually born down at the San Diego Zoo,
and like you said, Monroe was born here. So in
the gorilla world, you're gonna typically have one adult male
known as a silver back, all of his girlfriends and
then all of their offsprings. And so once males get
to a certain age, they start becoming sexually curious, they
start causing problems.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
They usually kind of get booted out.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Of the truth, right, you're talking like maybe comparing not
to directly compare with the human beings, but like the teenagers, right,
you know.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So typically like you know, many people go off to college.
It's kind of like going like that. So typically males
around the same age, usually between eight and twelve, will
kind of get the boot. They usually will stay satellite
for their troop for a little while out in Africa,
so they'll be able to watch and learn a little bit,
but eventually they will go off on their own, just
form that bachelor troop.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Oh like so maybe creating a little distance, right, which
I'm sure a lot of the kids listening around like okay,
totally get that, right, but so a little adjacent to
the main family, But eventually they're going to move off, right,
And you mentioned earlier silverback, and I think you mentioned
black back. Can you define that a little bit more
for people?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
So, yeah, so silverback is just a fun term to
refer to a fully grown mature adult, male.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Only male, not female only male. Well, you're saying silverback,
people are picturing like silver color in the back of
a gorilla. Is that kind of what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
So as they do mature, their back does become a
little bit more silver, but not the second that it matures.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
It's kind of like when men get beards.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
You know a lot of times, oh man, I feel that, well,
they get a little bit straggly.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
They don't have a full they're not fully mature.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Middle Squad tried to grow that mustache. You guys, it
was super embarrassing. But hey, you know, to your point,
it happens.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It happens.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You know, it's not like one day you wake up
and your beard was fully there. It's kind of the
same way with them, they kind of fill out a
little bit more. For instance, Frank, you know, he started
showing some of that silver back. But the large part
on top of their head is called a saginal crest,
and as they mature more, that actually grows larger.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh, actually, I'm looking at it right now, starting to
rout you. But I'm looking Frank, I see what they're
talking about. I can see the grayish silver hair on
his back, and you're right, I want to call it
like the top of his head. Is that the Okay?
But can you say that phrase again? And it expands
it gets bigger.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
A saginal crest.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So if you look at some of our younger boys,
they kind of have more of a smooth head, almost
kind of similar to the females. But as they go
through that maturity, they start to get that large sagital crest.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
It's kind of like an Adam's apple for a boy.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Oh that's a Coyd think about it. In fact, when
I see him, I want to say, like, is he
pauled in him? I see some similar features, right for sure?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
When Paul came to us from the zoo, it was
crazy how similar Frank and Paul Don looks right. Yeah,
And not only that, they act very similar to.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
To say, some of their movements too, a little like
Papa vibes.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Oh for sure, I didn't realize how similar they were
until you know, Paul Don came and even Frank has
that super long, lushious hair on his forearms, very similar.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
To Paul Don as well.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
If you ever check him out a gorilla forest, you've
got to see all of his long, lush his forearm
hair and you know his leg hair as well too.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Oh that's awesome. Now there's so much to talk about.
Can we go back a little bit about gorilla natural behavior?
So like where we're gonna find gorillas, Like what gorillas
do you compare to? Because you mentioned great apes, right,
so maybe people think the orangutan and Asia as an example,
but they're very different, right, this is more of a
social great ape.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yes, So these guys they live in what we call troops.
They live in all different parts of Central Africa. So
there's actually four different subspecies of gorillas.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Or okay, here we have Western Lowland gorillas Western Milie.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
So actually throughout pretty much almost every zoo that you
will go to, you'll only find Western Lowland. Oh there's
only one zoo that has mountain gerrillas.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Oh wow, really, you know I was looking it up
on the way down here, Sam, And it was kind
of sad too to hear, like they're all critically endangered,
but I'd found out that the Mountain girl is endangered,
so kind of a step in the right direction a
little bit, you know. But they're all really hurting for
a lot of different reasons, right yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
They are.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Unfortunately a lot of it is due to human animal conflict, poaching,
as well as habitat loss.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah yeah, And you know, we talked about this because
you know, we're San Diego Zoo wad the Lions. We
have our conservation centers around the world, and we always
say in that conservation always begins with human beings, right,
So sure when we go to these places and maybe
the Amazon or Australia or Asia Africa, you know, we
have to work alongside the communities that are living with
these animals, right. We have to listen, we've got to
respect traditions, right yeah. And it's really amazing the work
(11:54):
that we do. In fact, we mentioned the four subspecies,
so we said the eastern Lowland gorilla right, the west they're.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
In Lowland gorilla, mountain gorillas, and then the cross River.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Guerrilla right yeah. And we're doing work specifically, I believe
with the western little land gorilla in Africa. I believe
it's not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So we actually just started partnering with Safe Gorilla. So
it's an amazing organization. Okay, stands for saving Animals from extinction.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Oh and if I'm not mistaken, this is a program
within what's referred to as AZYA or the American Association
of Zoos and Aquariums. Right, yeah, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So a bunch of zoos that have gorillas throughout the country,
we all kind of work together.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Yeah, so that way we can.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
You know, our big campaign that we did this year
was Gorilla's on the line our cell phone recycling.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh whoa, there's a connection between Oh don't be sorry,
I'm excited. There's a connection between cell phones and gorillas. Yeah,
what is that? What's going on with that?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So a big reason for habitat loss is there's a
lot of mining that goes on and where gorillas habitat.
Oh so a lot of the mining they're looking for
this mineral called cold tan.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Cold it's a mineral.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
That's in your cell phones, your iPads, your tablets that
keeps your systems from overheating or any of those electronics
from overheating.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's a lot of stuff then I would imagine, right
mm hm.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
So it's actually a reusable mineral.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
So a big thing that you can do to help
gorillas is actually recycle your cell phones. You can come
here to the Safari Park. You can turn it in
right at our Gorilla Forest. We have a great recycling
cell phone box or any of those smaller electronics box
that we can use and it will actually turn it in.
They'll take the mineral out and then they'll turn in
those old electronic devices and actually get money for conservation
(13:30):
to help gorillas out in Africa.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh that's so cool, Sam, I absolutely love it. And
I know we wanted to educate the crowd, but I
totally knew about it, and I remember like bringing my
stuff and it was really it felt good. One clearing
out my closet was great for one and she just
feeling good. They were helping at gorillas and it's such
an easy thing, right, So your kids listen in, maybe
bug your parents, Maybe grab that old iPad, right or
that old cell phone. Come to the Safari parker find
(13:54):
a way to recycle, right or even when you're purchasing
maybe a new cell phone. A lot of them are
offering more sustainable practices right that you can do that
to help gorilla so I love that to your point too,
all that mining is destroying these beautiful rainforests. We're talking
the center of Africa, the Congo air in Nigeri and
these poor animals that get affected, but also to my knowledge,
to the communities get affected as well, you know, polluting
(14:15):
the waters and whatnot. So there's a lot going on.
And you also, by the way, mention wildlife trafficking and
also interactions with human beings, because I mean, you and
I live here in San Diego. It's gorgeous, right, Maybe
we go on a hike, we see it deer, maybe
we see a red tailed hawk. But there are some
places in the world, like for instance of Congo, where
a farmer could be, you know, living in Africa with
his family, growing his crops, living in life. But maybe
(14:38):
he'll wake up one day and oh no, there's like
a there's a troop of gorillas in my crops right,
rating my crops, which I'm sure as a bummer for
the poor farmer trying to support his families. I totally
get right, But that may have a negative impact on
gorillas too.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
What you say, Yes, these guys are also very much post.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Poach, meaning like they're being hunted.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
They're being hunted to I legally hunted. Legally, there is
a big bush meat for these guys.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Bush meat it's like meat found in the jungles from the.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Wild, right pretty much, So these guys sometimes can be
hunted for their meat. It's something that we're trying to
educate the local people about how these gorillas are super
important to their environment. They create such a great biodiversity because.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
They're seed disperses, right, I mean they're eating a lot
of different plants.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Out there, wouldn't you say, Yeah, they're eating wide variety.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
They help with forest fires as well too, you know,
keeping that brush down, eating and going through that forest.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I didn't think about brush fires. There's so much that
they do. There's a term that you and I are
familiar with called the flagship species. So if listeners are
not familiar, basically, you know, helping out a gorilla or
maybe an elephant or maybe a jaguarre, you're going to
help out so many other animals, right, they're community in
the area.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
It's a huge domino effect.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, so many animals thrive off also where gorillas lives too.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
You know, there's chimpanzees, there's other smaller there's no copies.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
There's all these different kinds of animals that thrive in
their areas.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, and if you visit our website at San Diego
Zoo on the FWN so you can learn a lot
about a conservation practices out there. And it's also like
building up community. I mean, I've met some of the
individuals out there doing amazing programs. I think it's called
like clube. They have me styled the Gorilla It's a
wonderful community program, so they learn about gorilla is the
importance of sustainable farming is an example. And even like
(16:21):
creating job sam. I mean some of these people could
become maybe a guide, a scout right and the ecotourism
is a great way, right, would.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
You say to help out that organization Also is a
group of people in the community.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Is that their big mission is to educate the local people.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
They decided that one day, a big, large group of
them said that we're not going to hunt them anymore.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
We're actually going to protect these guys.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
And they realize that they can get money from eco
tourism versus hunting them. The local community is realizing that
they're experiencing more benefits out of eco tourism and saving
gorillas the versus hunting them.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Oh I love that. And they see examples of that
all over the world where it's the community beginning practices,
like with the Wahsu lines as an example to Emma
as well. It's people in those areas or even here
in San Diego just want to protect their wildlife, right,
keep the grass green, keep the air fresh. Right sure, yeah,
it's gonna benefit everyone. Oh man, we're talking so much.
I'm trying to think of like more interesting things to
(17:12):
highlight here, because you know, they can come into the
Safari Park, they can experience a main troop with Paul
donon mention and also with Franken Monroe and you brush
briefly about the Bronx Boys, which I totally love that name,
by the way, and it's a good reminder for listeners
that it's not just us, you know, like we're working
together with different organizations around the world, but especially here
in the United States, right y, And so we have
(17:33):
some uniqueness here at the Safari Park. And by that
I'm referencing just the space alone, right, I mean the
San Diego Zoo. No shade to the zoo. Love me
the zoo one hundred acres, which is epic, so many
cool animals and plant life. But here we're the Safari Park.
We're eighteen hundred acres, right, crazy, Yeah, And this habitat Sam.
Since I've been sixteen, this particular habitat has always been
(17:54):
one that I thought, like, man if I was a
wildlife living at the Safari Park, this would be my
habit right, can you describe a little bit of it,
like what makes so unique and why perhaps we could
offer this space for the Bronx boys.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, So this habitat is perfect for a bachelor troop.
It's super large, there's a lot of climbing different structures.
There's a bunch of palm trees out here. They sometimes
will climb up the palm trees. We'll be driving by
and they'll be up on the third floor of our
climbing structure or just sitting there, you know, sitting on
top of one of the large poles, one of the
large trees. We'll see Frank pull some of the palm
(18:29):
fronds down, and it's funny, you know, watching a four hundred.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Pound animal jump up.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
And these guys are not really meant to be jumpers.
They have super short legs and really long arms. So
watching him jump up is like watching a little kid
try to jump for the first time. They don't really
know how to, you know, use those legs to get
as much high in the sky. I feel that they're
a lot better climbers. But this habitat is super large.
There's a lot of what we call getaway area.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Maybe, like, for instance, like everyone thinks I'm an extrovert,
but in reality, Sam, like, I love talking to people, right,
but there are sometimes like when I'm done work, and
I love my job, but when I'm done, I just
don't want to talk to any human being. You know,
I'm a little more of an introvert. I would imagine
these guys are the same.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, exactly. So sometimes these guys just want to get
away from each other. They want a visual break from
each other, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Even right now, right as we're talking. I noticed earlier,
before you and I met up here at the habitat,
they were actually playing together, which is really cute to see,
by the way. But now I notice that franken r
are in completely opposite sides. One taking a little nappy
napped down to the lower level, and we got another
one here forging on some browse material under a palm tree,
and it's a vibe. But they got there a little space, right,
(19:33):
which is perfect, so.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
They can actually get away from each other.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
So there's many hills on this habitat, there's a moat
that goes all the way around it, so that way
they can always you know, get a visual break of
each other, so they can just be like, Okay, I
need a little moment to myself. That's perfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, no little choice and control things right exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
They don't need to be all next to each other.
They don't need to be best buddies every single time.
I feel that it's just like teenage boys. Sometimes they're
you know, playing along. Sometimes they're tussling on each other.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I mean, it makes me think of my husband, and
I like people who know us know this, and he
knows I'm going to say this, sorry Kobe, but I say, like,
Kobe's like a golden retriever, Like he gets energy being
around people. He's up in the morning, by the way,
without caffeine, and he's up and ready to go. Me
I'm not quite that way. I'm more like a bear
coming out of a cave. So I need about an hour.
I need some space, I need low light, you know.
But everyone navigates the world in their own way. So
(20:22):
it's really really great that you guys are able to
identify like unique personality traits of every single gorilla that
we have here.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
So every single gorilla is different.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
No two gorillas ever made the same, just like two humans,
They're never going to be the same and not have
every single same personality. Frank definitely is, you know, our
large and in charge man. He you know, he's always
been the big brother we like to call a he
not in the best way big brother. He well, he
likes to poke the bear a lot. He likes to
let everyone know that he is in charge.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I get that, you know.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And he's always been the largest for the longest time.
But you know, finally Monroe's kind of caught off to
him and Row are the same size right now.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, he is so big now. I remember he was
a little beady too, So it's great to see them
develop like this. Oh Sam, I could stay here forever,
but I know we're getting a little closer on our
time here. But there's two other questions that I really
wanted to bring up, and one you know, identifies that
LATINX community and the queer community as well. Right, And
one of my favorite things about gorillas, honestly is this misnomer,
this misunderstanding of gorillas and with toxic masculinity, to be
(21:24):
honest with you, you know, I mean everyone thinks of like, well,
you remember the movie King Kong as an example, Right,
It's sort of like it's sensationalizes a portion of the
nuance of behavior that gorillas can express. Right, Can you
talk to me a little bit, like what is a
gorilla normally? Like? Are they always aggressive? Are they jumping
up buildings carrying people?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Sam?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Is that what's going on? No? No, are you sure?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Not as much as fun as King Kong is? You know,
it's not the best depiction of gorillas. Kind of like
if you ever come to our gorilla forest, you'll see
Paul most of the time either hanging out and laying
down or you know, eating. Sometimes every once in a
while he has to break up some fights between the ladies, which.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Normal, that's normal, normal roommate kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Our bachelor boys are a little bit more high with
the testcosterom, so they might be displaying a little bit
more than you would say, Paul.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
But it makes sense to me, right, I mean, just
to bring up the fact that this is a male,
you said, what four to six hundred pounds. But in
Africa they have to protect their troop, their family if
they need to. So that's kind of what I'd be
mistaken to say that that's why they're as big as
they are. And they even have some canines if they
need to fend the troop. I mean, maybe a leopard
comes in the area, you don't know, right, so you
have to protect your famdia right.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
So these guys are I like to calm, all bark,
no bite, so they do not want to get in
conflict if they don't.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Have to write. And this is a vegetarian too, am
I Sometimes I noticed a male guests get a little
surprised when I tell them, like friends, this is one
hundred percent vegetarian, right, no meat?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And these guys are straight muscle, you know when they
don't when they run, only the thing that's moving.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Really is the hair.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
It's straight, straight muscles. They are solid, they are solid.
But yeah, a lot of the gorillas are very relaxed.
They're very calm. Sometimes you know they will run around
and play like I was saying how Leslie is when
they're younger. But usually as they get older and you know,
a little bit more mature, they kind of slow down
a little bit and they're you know, all gorillas, especially Paul,
love to eat, and usually right after a big Thanksgiving meal,
(23:14):
you know, they like to take a long nap, soement about.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
That for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
You know, sometimes, especially in all of our habitats we
have hammocks, they'll like to go up in those hammocks
and just take a good nap, or they'll make a
huge nest and take a big nap. A lot of times,
these guys are, you know, sleeping a lot. So that's
awesome that they're showing us that they're comfortable and taking
a nap wherever they want to, expressing.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
A behaviors that you're looking for.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
These guys, especially Frank. I've worked with Frank for almost
four years now, just seeing his and I's relationship grow
and how much you know, he trusts me. That work
a lot with him, and a lot of our training
that we do is based on trust, you know, and
we never tell them no, We never use punishment. We
always keep our relationship in good standing. So these guys
(23:59):
they're trained for a while variety of different behaviors. They're
trained for husbandry behaviors, which is pretty much a fun
way to say that they voluntarily take part in their
own medical care.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, maybe like dental work, right, or maybe they got
to cut on an arm or something like that, so
we can partake in that.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So yeah, so Frank, we can brush his teeth, you know,
to make sure they kind of keep it clean. Right now,
we're working on cardiac ultrasounds. Oh yeah, so the number
one reason for death in gorillas, for natural death is
actually heart problems. Yeah, so we can have him present
his chest, we use an ultrasound one and be able
to see his different heartbeats, and that way we never
have to put him on our estia. We can do
(24:32):
it all voluntarily and if he wants.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
To walk away perfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
That's amazing And honestly, because our care is just so
top noch here that we have a lot of our
species individuals that live longer than the standard lifespan.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So you mentioned Winston before, but maybe listeners aren't aware
that was their previous silver back in the troop and
he was one of the longest live male gorillas in history,
right in fifty two years, and it was a cardiac
issue too. But you know, it's all kept moment for
that wonderful, wonderful gorilla Winston. We're also getting close to
the other those what they'll see you, So I put
them a picture of Winston in my own.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Friend that we know definitely have put up Winston on
our friend.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh I love it. Oh Sam, I'm having the best time,
but you know, we got to kind of show up
what I have. One more question. It's a question that
Rick had always brought up that I absolutely loved. It's like,
what got you into this him? Like, was it a
gorilla book when you were a kid? Did you always
want to work with gorillas?
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
What got you in this kind of line of work?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
So I kind of fell into gorillas.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I always knew I wanted to be a wildlifecare specialist.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I always always I want to be a keeper wildlofcare specialist.
That's what I wanted to Yep.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I always wanted to be a zoo keeper growing up
and when I was doing internships throughout college, even like
started my career doing seasonal positions. I tried every single animal.
I wanted to make sure. I just wanted to see.
I want to test all the waters. I tried marine mammals,
I did elephants, I did carnivores, I.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Did first a plethora.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I you know, I was open to everything and anything. Wow, okay,
So I wanted to open I kept my mind open
and want to keep every door open. And then my
first full time position ended up just being Gorilla. And
at that point I never worked great apes or primates
at that point. So I was like, all right, let's
try it. And you know these guys are you know,
like you said, four hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
I was so nervous my first time working with Gorilla.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Oh you were, Oh I was, you know, I as
like we said, like all you see is King Kong,
you know the.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
I mean, I've known these guys for a while, but
I haven't seen Monroe in a while, honestly, and he's really.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Big, super sure, and so I was a little nervous,
you know, like, especially when we go behind the scenes,
you get a closer personal right now, And I was like,
are you sure? Are we You know, you don't realize
how big they are until you're right next to that,
and so you know, after I've worked with gorillas for
almost over six years now, and so you know, I
kind of fell into it. Came out here to San
(26:41):
Diego four years ago and then I saw a gorilla
position was open, so I applied for it and got it,
and you know, continued my career with working with gorillas.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Sam. Absolutely love that everyone has like a different origin story,
and I love it for all the kids listening, especially
because I'm sure that someone's saying, like, I want to
be a gorilla wildlife care specialist, and I love for me.
What I took away from your store is keeping an
open mind and being adaptable because sometimes you're presented with
challengers or doors open up and maybe you're feeling some
kind of way right and you don't want to do
it and you're nervous about it, but you should grab
(27:10):
life by the reins, right and go for it, and
just go for it.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I mean, you know, just go all the way out.
You always want to try new things. That's my big
thing is I always want to try something new. I
always want to, you know, push the envelope and see
what else is out there.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Aw, Sam, this was amazing. Thank you, so much for that.
That's a great wait. I think to end today's episode
and thank you for this wonderful experience. A whole time
I've been distracted watching these two, just just living and
it's been the best. So for sharing some gorilla Nuncle Sam.
That was great. Yeah, oh guys, that was amazing. I
(27:42):
mean I'm always learning something neat with the wildlife care
specialist teams at the zoo in the park, they do
so much amazing work. So when you're cruising around the
Safari Park with the San Diego Zoo and you happen
to see those tangerds out there, give them a big
thank you and a big thumbs up for all the
work that they do. This was epic and I hope
you enjoyed today's episode about rilla is learn all about
the Safe Gorilla Program, what you can do to help
(28:03):
out in gorilla conservation. So stick around for more adventures,
whether it be the Zusafari Park. I don't want to
give a hint just yet, but I got some really
interesting things to share with you guys with the remaining
part of this season. You know what I'm gonna say,
I'm gonna take out I'm Marco went and have a
gorgeous day Stay wild. For more information about the San
(28:26):
Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to
SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio.
Our supervising producer is still in Fagan, and our sound
designers are Sierra Spring and Matt Russell. For more shows
from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ruby when as this world a Marco went and this
is Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife
from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This podcast is in production with Iheartradios, Ruby Studio and
San Diego Zoo Wild lef Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation
organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and the Safari
Parkme Man, everyone, I am having the best morning, as
you probably all guess. I'm my favorite place of the
(00:42):
entire world. I'm at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
This is a town where I grew up in Escondido,
and we're gonna be talking about something really unique. It's
not a bird. I know a lot of you thinking
I'm talking to bird, but no, it's actually a mammal.
But also I wanted to reference something really fast because
I'm sure you're wondering. You know, you're probably wonder why
you don't hear Rick along with this conversation. I just
(01:03):
wanted to update everyone. Rick actually won't be joining me
on the remaining episodes of this season, but you know
he is amazing and wish him all the best. I
think the soundcrewk could probably quein some applause for m
Let's get some ride of applause for Rick. Oh yeah,
and so well deserved. But don't worry everyone, because I
(01:23):
got you. We got some wicked adventures for the remaining
part of this season, and today I am actually in
a part where most guests probably have never seen before,
at the Safari Park. So I am Well, first, I'll
talk about the human that I'm with right now. So Ami,
got do me a favorite? Can you tell me your
name and your role here at the Safari Park.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Hi, I'm Sam. I'm one of the wildlife care specialists
that takes care of the girl is.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Here at the start Park.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh that's awesome, Sam, thank you so much for taking
the time. I super appreciate it. I guess it sounds
like I'm whispering a little bit because this place, I think,
just like it gives you such a vibe, you know,
this place that we're rat Can you describe for our listeners,
like where exactly are we in the Safari Park right now?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So right now we are actually behind the scenes what
we call our bachelor habitat. It's very behind the scenes,
so pretty much the only way that you can either
see it is going on whenever behind the scenes tour
or sometimes if you're up in the balloon, you can
actually see the habitat all the way over here.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh I didn't know that. So in the balloon safari
you can get on that and see some of the habitat.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, you can see part of the habitat. I've never
done it. I'm a little bit of afraid of height.
But some of my other colleagues have done it, and
when they went up there, they're like, oh, my gosh,
did you know that you could see the bachelor habitat
up there?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I totally get the phobias, my friend. For me, it's
a cubicle, to be honest with you. So that's why
I'm so stoked here. And you know, to describe it
a little bit too for our listener. So we're in
an off site area that Sam was mentioning there is
a tour involved here, right, that you were mentioning that
guests can come and actually experience this really unique habitat.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Right, Yeah, some of our ultimate tours as well as
our behind the scenes tours. You guys get to come
by here and get to drive right past our guerrillas.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
When you get to see them.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Sometimes when you go out into the Safaris on the
caravan Safari wait by Shafaris, Right, you go on the caravans,
you do get cruise back.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, they cruise by really quick.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Unfortunately those guys don't stop, but you do sometimes get
to see a quick glance of our bachelor habitat. Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Actually, Sam, that brings up a good point too, that
there are some tours that go past this particular part
of the safari park. But you also because you get
immersed in so many other senses, you know, because for instance,
for gorillas, for me, you're gonna lot, but this is
actually growing up here since I was sixteen. It's one
of my favorite smells of the s it's a gorillas now,
I know it's heavy testosterone smell, especially when we're talking
(03:32):
about the boys here, right for sure. Its right. So
if you're in a Wildlife Safari tour or to your point,
the Ultimate tours, you'll be able to not only possibly
see one of these handsome gorillas, but also smell these
amazing animals too.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Sometimes we can definitely tell when the boys are a
little bit more rallied up. They're going either you know,
some testosterone surges. We can smell them from outside their buildings.
We can from even just driving up. We're like, ooh,
we can tell it's gonna be a fun day today
because we can tell that the boys are all around, it's.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Going to be a y Oh, that's interesting. I didn't
know it peaks sometimes considering their behavior. But you know,
before we get deep into the gorilla information, we're going
to talk about now, I'm sure maybe there's someone in
the world friend who like, never even heard of a gorilla.
Can you describe what a gorilla is? What makes them unique?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
So gorillas are part of the Grade eight family.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
These guys are super I like to say they are
the jock of the Grade eight family.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
They are a whole muscle.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
They sometimes, you know, they think and they react with
the big bangs, loud sounds. These guys are just super
docile though, you know, especially some of our older ones Winston.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
And oh yeah, Winston.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
And kim Me definitely. You know, as they get older,
they kind of become the grandparents.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
They come up a little bit slower.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
When we also get our y little youngsters like Leslie,
who just turned nine. I'll call her the little baby
because she is the youngest one of our troop, okay,
and she's super playful. She will run around with some
of the wildlife care specialists kind of doing a little
bit of a chase and behind the scenes areas or
(05:12):
before we open to the public and have visitors come by,
we'll run in the front and she'll chase us back
and forth.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
On the habitat. I've seen her move around. It's really
super shoot. Yeah. In fact, actually, since we're talking some
of the personalities and names, could you say how many
gorillas are thriving here at the Safari Park and their
names if you could?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
So we have eleven gorilla's total eleven.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
And our bachelor habitat we have five boys, so we
have Franken Monroe okay, and then what we have we
call the Bronx Boys, so we have Najemba, Mconzie and Mazzani.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
They actually came to us last November from the Bronx Zoo.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh. That's really cool.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Nice, yeah, really cool watching them. They're a little bit
younger than Franken Monroe, So Franken just turned seventeen, Monroe
is fourteen, and then Najemba is ten. He just turned
ten recently, and then Mconzie is also ten, and then
Mazzani is eleven.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh wow. And in case maybe our listeners don't know
that there's two habitats with gorillas here at this historic park, right,
so you just referenced we call it the bachelor habitat.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Is that a going to call it a bachelor habitat
because only the bachelor's live here. And then our main
habitat are our family troop Gorilla.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Forest, right, Gorilla Florest. Guess can actually walk up and
check it out on foot.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yes, at Gorilla Forest, we have six grillas there. So
we have Paul Don he's the silverback of that troop.
You can definitely tell him because he's the largest. He
has that silver back. Usually you can check him out,
and he's most of the time sleeping, if not eating.
That's usually his two favorite activities is sleeping and eating.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I mean, I can't blame him.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
That's my favorite activities as well as Then we have Jessica, Cammy,
Leslie Amani and Joe Ann and all of those are females.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, And there's we were talking about it before we
started recording. There's some relations, right, some familia ties. Going
on cently right, can you reference what's happening with Frank
and Paul Don specifically?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, So Frank and Paul Don are father's son, So
Paul Down is Frank's dad.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
And then another tie is Cammy is actually Paul Don's mother.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
WHOA.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
So Cammy is Frank's grandma.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Will And she's I think she's my personal favorite. I
gotta say, she's so.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Cute, so many people love her.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You can definitely tell her because she has the biggest belly,
you know, And I.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Mean she's our grandma Cammy.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Sometimes, you know, after forty seven years, gravity kind of
takes over a little bit. You get a few extra sweets,
you know, your metabolism slows down a little bit.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
And that's okay.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I feel some parents right now like not in their
heads up and down, like we all feel about Yeah,
we totally care. Oh I love that, And you know,
I'm sure a lot of listeners are were too. But
there's a uniqueness between Frank and Monroe because if I'm
a mistaken Monroe was born here at the Safari Park, right, ye,
But Frank was not right down at the San Diego Zoo.
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
So Frank was actually born down at the San Diego Zoo,
and like you said, Monroe was born here. So in
the gorilla world, you're gonna typically have one adult male
known as a silver back, all of his girlfriends and
then all of their offsprings. And so once males get
to a certain age, they start becoming sexually curious, they
start causing problems.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
They usually kind of get booted out.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Of the truth, right, you're talking like maybe comparing not
to directly compare with the human beings, but like the teenagers, right,
you know.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So typically like you know, many people go off to college.
It's kind of like going like that. So typically males
around the same age, usually between eight and twelve, will
kind of get the boot. They usually will stay satellite
for their troop for a little while out in Africa,
so they'll be able to watch and learn a little bit,
but eventually they will go off on their own, just
form that bachelor troop.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Oh like so maybe creating a little distance, right, which
I'm sure a lot of the kids listening around like okay,
totally get that, right, but so a little adjacent to
the main family, But eventually they're going to move off, right,
And you mentioned earlier silverback, and I think you mentioned
black back. Can you define that a little bit more
for people?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
So, yeah, so silverback is just a fun term to
refer to a fully grown mature adult, male.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Only male, not female only male. Well, you're saying silverback,
people are picturing like silver color in the back of
a gorilla. Is that kind of what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
So as they do mature, their back does become a
little bit more silver, but not the second that it matures.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
It's kind of like when men get beards.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
You know a lot of times, oh man, I feel that, well,
they get a little bit straggly.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
They don't have a full they're not fully mature.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Middle Squad tried to grow that mustache. You guys, it
was super embarrassing. But hey, you know, to your point,
it happens.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It happens.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You know, it's not like one day you wake up
and your beard was fully there. It's kind of the
same way with them, they kind of fill out a
little bit more. For instance, Frank, you know, he started
showing some of that silver back. But the large part
on top of their head is called a saginal crest,
and as they mature more, that actually grows larger.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh, actually, I'm looking at it right now, starting to
rout you. But I'm looking Frank, I see what they're
talking about. I can see the grayish silver hair on
his back, and you're right, I want to call it
like the top of his head. Is that the Okay?
But can you say that phrase again? And it expands
it gets bigger.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
A saginal crest.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So if you look at some of our younger boys,
they kind of have more of a smooth head, almost
kind of similar to the females. But as they go
through that maturity, they start to get that large sagital crest.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
It's kind of like an Adam's apple for a boy.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Oh that's a Coyd think about it. In fact, when
I see him, I want to say, like, is he
pauled in him? I see some similar features, right for sure?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
When Paul came to us from the zoo, it was
crazy how similar Frank and Paul Don looks right. Yeah,
And not only that, they act very similar to.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
To say, some of their movements too, a little like
Papa vibes.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Oh for sure, I didn't realize how similar they were
until you know, Paul Don came and even Frank has
that super long, lushious hair on his forearms, very similar.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
To Paul Don as well.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
If you ever check him out a gorilla forest, you've
got to see all of his long, lush his forearm
hair and you know his leg hair as well too.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Oh that's awesome. Now there's so much to talk about.
Can we go back a little bit about gorilla natural behavior?
So like where we're gonna find gorillas, Like what gorillas
do you compare to? Because you mentioned great apes, right,
so maybe people think the orangutan and Asia as an example,
but they're very different, right, this is more of a
social great ape.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yes, So these guys they live in what we call troops.
They live in all different parts of Central Africa. So
there's actually four different subspecies of gorillas.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Or okay, here we have Western Lowland gorillas Western Milie.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
So actually throughout pretty much almost every zoo that you
will go to, you'll only find Western Lowland. Oh there's
only one zoo that has mountain gerrillas.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Oh wow, really, you know I was looking it up
on the way down here, Sam, And it was kind
of sad too to hear, like they're all critically endangered,
but I'd found out that the Mountain girl is endangered,
so kind of a step in the right direction a
little bit, you know. But they're all really hurting for
a lot of different reasons, right yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
They are.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Unfortunately a lot of it is due to human animal conflict, poaching,
as well as habitat loss.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah yeah, And you know, we talked about this because
you know, we're San Diego Zoo wad the Lions. We
have our conservation centers around the world, and we always
say in that conservation always begins with human beings, right,
So sure when we go to these places and maybe
the Amazon or Australia or Asia Africa, you know, we
have to work alongside the communities that are living with
these animals, right. We have to listen, we've got to
respect traditions, right yeah. And it's really amazing the work
(11:54):
that we do. In fact, we mentioned the four subspecies,
so we said the eastern Lowland gorilla right, the west they're.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
In Lowland gorilla, mountain gorillas, and then the cross River.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Guerrilla right yeah. And we're doing work specifically, I believe
with the western little land gorilla in Africa. I believe
it's not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So we actually just started partnering with Safe Gorilla. So
it's an amazing organization. Okay, stands for saving Animals from extinction.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Oh and if I'm not mistaken, this is a program
within what's referred to as AZYA or the American Association
of Zoos and Aquariums. Right, yeah, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So a bunch of zoos that have gorillas throughout the country,
we all kind of work together.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Yeah, so that way we can.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
You know, our big campaign that we did this year
was Gorilla's on the line our cell phone recycling.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh whoa, there's a connection between Oh don't be sorry,
I'm excited. There's a connection between cell phones and gorillas. Yeah,
what is that? What's going on with that?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So a big reason for habitat loss is there's a
lot of mining that goes on and where gorillas habitat.
Oh so a lot of the mining they're looking for
this mineral called cold tan.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Cold it's a mineral.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
That's in your cell phones, your iPads, your tablets that
keeps your systems from overheating or any of those electronics
from overheating.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's a lot of stuff then I would imagine, right
mm hm.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
So it's actually a reusable mineral.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
So a big thing that you can do to help
gorillas is actually recycle your cell phones. You can come
here to the Safari Park. You can turn it in
right at our Gorilla Forest. We have a great recycling
cell phone box or any of those smaller electronics box
that we can use and it will actually turn it in.
They'll take the mineral out and then they'll turn in
those old electronic devices and actually get money for conservation
(13:30):
to help gorillas out in Africa.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh that's so cool, Sam, I absolutely love it. And
I know we wanted to educate the crowd, but I
totally knew about it, and I remember like bringing my
stuff and it was really it felt good. One clearing
out my closet was great for one and she just
feeling good. They were helping at gorillas and it's such
an easy thing, right, So your kids listen in, maybe
bug your parents, Maybe grab that old iPad, right or
that old cell phone. Come to the Safari parker find
(13:54):
a way to recycle, right or even when you're purchasing
maybe a new cell phone. A lot of them are
offering more sustainable practices right that you can do that
to help gorilla so I love that to your point too,
all that mining is destroying these beautiful rainforests. We're talking
the center of Africa, the Congo air in Nigeri and
these poor animals that get affected, but also to my knowledge,
to the communities get affected as well, you know, polluting
(14:15):
the waters and whatnot. So there's a lot going on.
And you also, by the way, mention wildlife trafficking and
also interactions with human beings, because I mean, you and
I live here in San Diego. It's gorgeous, right, Maybe
we go on a hike, we see it deer, maybe
we see a red tailed hawk. But there are some
places in the world, like for instance of Congo, where
a farmer could be, you know, living in Africa with
his family, growing his crops, living in life. But maybe
(14:38):
he'll wake up one day and oh no, there's like
a there's a troop of gorillas in my crops right,
rating my crops, which I'm sure as a bummer for
the poor farmer trying to support his families. I totally
get right, But that may have a negative impact on
gorillas too.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
What you say, Yes, these guys are also very much post.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Poach, meaning like they're being hunted.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
They're being hunted to I legally hunted. Legally, there is
a big bush meat for these guys.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Bush meat it's like meat found in the jungles from the.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Wild, right pretty much, So these guys sometimes can be
hunted for their meat. It's something that we're trying to
educate the local people about how these gorillas are super
important to their environment. They create such a great biodiversity because.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
They're seed disperses, right, I mean they're eating a lot
of different plants.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Out there, wouldn't you say, Yeah, they're eating wide variety.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
They help with forest fires as well too, you know,
keeping that brush down, eating and going through that forest.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I didn't think about brush fires. There's so much that
they do. There's a term that you and I are
familiar with called the flagship species. So if listeners are
not familiar, basically, you know, helping out a gorilla or
maybe an elephant or maybe a jaguarre, you're going to
help out so many other animals, right, they're community in
the area.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
It's a huge domino effect.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, so many animals thrive off also where gorillas lives too.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
You know, there's chimpanzees, there's other smaller there's no copies.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
There's all these different kinds of animals that thrive in
their areas.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, and if you visit our website at San Diego
Zoo on the FWN so you can learn a lot
about a conservation practices out there. And it's also like
building up community. I mean, I've met some of the
individuals out there doing amazing programs. I think it's called
like clube. They have me styled the Gorilla It's a
wonderful community program, so they learn about gorilla is the
importance of sustainable farming is an example. And even like
(16:21):
creating job sam. I mean some of these people could
become maybe a guide, a scout right and the ecotourism
is a great way, right, would.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
You say to help out that organization Also is a
group of people in the community.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Is that their big mission is to educate the local people.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
They decided that one day, a big, large group of
them said that we're not going to hunt them anymore.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
We're actually going to protect these guys.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
And they realize that they can get money from eco
tourism versus hunting them. The local community is realizing that
they're experiencing more benefits out of eco tourism and saving
gorillas the versus hunting them.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Oh I love that. And they see examples of that
all over the world where it's the community beginning practices,
like with the Wahsu lines as an example to Emma
as well. It's people in those areas or even here
in San Diego just want to protect their wildlife, right,
keep the grass green, keep the air fresh. Right sure, yeah,
it's gonna benefit everyone. Oh man, we're talking so much.
I'm trying to think of like more interesting things to
(17:12):
highlight here, because you know, they can come into the
Safari Park, they can experience a main troop with Paul
donon mention and also with Franken Monroe and you brush
briefly about the Bronx Boys, which I totally love that name,
by the way, and it's a good reminder for listeners
that it's not just us, you know, like we're working
together with different organizations around the world, but especially here
in the United States, right y, And so we have
(17:33):
some uniqueness here at the Safari Park. And by that
I'm referencing just the space alone, right, I mean the
San Diego Zoo. No shade to the zoo. Love me
the zoo one hundred acres, which is epic, so many
cool animals and plant life. But here we're the Safari Park.
We're eighteen hundred acres, right, crazy, Yeah, And this habitat Sam.
Since I've been sixteen, this particular habitat has always been
(17:54):
one that I thought, like, man if I was a
wildlife living at the Safari Park, this would be my
habit right, can you describe a little bit of it,
like what makes so unique and why perhaps we could
offer this space for the Bronx boys.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, So this habitat is perfect for a bachelor troop.
It's super large, there's a lot of climbing different structures.
There's a bunch of palm trees out here. They sometimes
will climb up the palm trees. We'll be driving by
and they'll be up on the third floor of our
climbing structure or just sitting there, you know, sitting on
top of one of the large poles, one of the
large trees. We'll see Frank pull some of the palm
(18:29):
fronds down, and it's funny, you know, watching a four hundred.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Pound animal jump up.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
And these guys are not really meant to be jumpers.
They have super short legs and really long arms. So
watching him jump up is like watching a little kid
try to jump for the first time. They don't really
know how to, you know, use those legs to get
as much high in the sky. I feel that they're
a lot better climbers. But this habitat is super large.
There's a lot of what we call getaway area.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Maybe, like, for instance, like everyone thinks I'm an extrovert,
but in reality, Sam, like, I love talking to people, right,
but there are sometimes like when I'm done work, and
I love my job, but when I'm done, I just
don't want to talk to any human being. You know,
I'm a little more of an introvert. I would imagine
these guys are the same.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, exactly. So sometimes these guys just want to get
away from each other. They want a visual break from
each other, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Even right now, right as we're talking. I noticed earlier,
before you and I met up here at the habitat,
they were actually playing together, which is really cute to see,
by the way. But now I notice that franken r
are in completely opposite sides. One taking a little nappy
napped down to the lower level, and we got another
one here forging on some browse material under a palm tree,
and it's a vibe. But they got there a little space, right,
(19:33):
which is perfect, so.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
They can actually get away from each other.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
So there's many hills on this habitat, there's a moat
that goes all the way around it, so that way
they can always you know, get a visual break of
each other, so they can just be like, Okay, I
need a little moment to myself. That's perfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, no little choice and control things right exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
They don't need to be all next to each other.
They don't need to be best buddies every single time.
I feel that it's just like teenage boys. Sometimes they're
you know, playing along. Sometimes they're tussling on each other.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I mean, it makes me think of my husband, and
I like people who know us know this, and he
knows I'm going to say this, sorry Kobe, but I say, like,
Kobe's like a golden retriever, Like he gets energy being
around people. He's up in the morning, by the way,
without caffeine, and he's up and ready to go. Me
I'm not quite that way. I'm more like a bear
coming out of a cave. So I need about an hour.
I need some space, I need low light, you know.
But everyone navigates the world in their own way. So
(20:22):
it's really really great that you guys are able to
identify like unique personality traits of every single gorilla that
we have here.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
So every single gorilla is different.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
No two gorillas ever made the same, just like two humans,
They're never going to be the same and not have
every single same personality. Frank definitely is, you know, our
large and in charge man. He you know, he's always
been the big brother we like to call a he
not in the best way big brother. He well, he
likes to poke the bear a lot. He likes to
let everyone know that he is in charge.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I get that, you know.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And he's always been the largest for the longest time.
But you know, finally Monroe's kind of caught off to
him and Row are the same size right now.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, he is so big now. I remember he was
a little beady too, So it's great to see them
develop like this. Oh Sam, I could stay here forever,
but I know we're getting a little closer on our
time here. But there's two other questions that I really
wanted to bring up, and one you know, identifies that
LATINX community and the queer community as well. Right, And
one of my favorite things about gorillas, honestly is this misnomer,
this misunderstanding of gorillas and with toxic masculinity, to be
(21:24):
honest with you, you know, I mean everyone thinks of like, well,
you remember the movie King Kong as an example, Right,
It's sort of like it's sensationalizes a portion of the
nuance of behavior that gorillas can express. Right, Can you
talk to me a little bit, like what is a
gorilla normally? Like? Are they always aggressive? Are they jumping
up buildings carrying people?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Sam?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Is that what's going on? No? No, are you sure?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Not as much as fun as King Kong is? You know,
it's not the best depiction of gorillas. Kind of like
if you ever come to our gorilla forest, you'll see
Paul most of the time either hanging out and laying
down or you know, eating. Sometimes every once in a
while he has to break up some fights between the ladies, which.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Normal, that's normal, normal roommate kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Our bachelor boys are a little bit more high with
the testcosterom, so they might be displaying a little bit
more than you would say, Paul.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
But it makes sense to me, right, I mean, just
to bring up the fact that this is a male,
you said, what four to six hundred pounds. But in
Africa they have to protect their troop, their family if
they need to. So that's kind of what I'd be
mistaken to say that that's why they're as big as
they are. And they even have some canines if they
need to fend the troop. I mean, maybe a leopard
comes in the area, you don't know, right, so you
have to protect your famdia right.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
So these guys are I like to calm, all bark,
no bite, so they do not want to get in
conflict if they don't.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Have to write. And this is a vegetarian too, am
I Sometimes I noticed a male guests get a little
surprised when I tell them, like friends, this is one
hundred percent vegetarian, right, no meat?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And these guys are straight muscle, you know when they
don't when they run, only the thing that's moving.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Really is the hair.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
It's straight, straight muscles. They are solid, they are solid.
But yeah, a lot of the gorillas are very relaxed.
They're very calm. Sometimes you know they will run around
and play like I was saying how Leslie is when
they're younger. But usually as they get older and you know,
a little bit more mature, they kind of slow down
a little bit and they're you know, all gorillas, especially Paul,
love to eat, and usually right after a big Thanksgiving meal,
(23:14):
you know, they like to take a long nap, soement about.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
That for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
You know, sometimes, especially in all of our habitats we
have hammocks, they'll like to go up in those hammocks
and just take a good nap, or they'll make a
huge nest and take a big nap. A lot of times,
these guys are, you know, sleeping a lot. So that's
awesome that they're showing us that they're comfortable and taking
a nap wherever they want to, expressing.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
A behaviors that you're looking for.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
These guys, especially Frank. I've worked with Frank for almost
four years now, just seeing his and I's relationship grow
and how much you know, he trusts me. That work
a lot with him, and a lot of our training
that we do is based on trust, you know, and
we never tell them no, We never use punishment. We
always keep our relationship in good standing. So these guys
(23:59):
they're trained for a while variety of different behaviors. They're
trained for husbandry behaviors, which is pretty much a fun
way to say that they voluntarily take part in their
own medical care.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, maybe like dental work, right, or maybe they got
to cut on an arm or something like that, so
we can partake in that.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So yeah, so Frank, we can brush his teeth, you know,
to make sure they kind of keep it clean. Right now,
we're working on cardiac ultrasounds. Oh yeah, so the number
one reason for death in gorillas, for natural death is
actually heart problems. Yeah, so we can have him present
his chest, we use an ultrasound one and be able
to see his different heartbeats, and that way we never
have to put him on our estia. We can do
(24:32):
it all voluntarily and if he wants.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
To walk away perfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
That's amazing And honestly, because our care is just so
top noch here that we have a lot of our
species individuals that live longer than the standard lifespan.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So you mentioned Winston before, but maybe listeners aren't aware
that was their previous silver back in the troop and
he was one of the longest live male gorillas in history,
right in fifty two years, and it was a cardiac
issue too. But you know, it's all kept moment for
that wonderful, wonderful gorilla Winston. We're also getting close to
the other those what they'll see you, So I put
them a picture of Winston in my own.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Friend that we know definitely have put up Winston on
our friend.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh I love it. Oh Sam, I'm having the best time,
but you know, we got to kind of show up
what I have. One more question. It's a question that
Rick had always brought up that I absolutely loved. It's like,
what got you into this him? Like, was it a
gorilla book when you were a kid? Did you always
want to work with gorillas?
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
What got you in this kind of line of work?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
So I kind of fell into gorillas.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I always knew I wanted to be a wildlifecare specialist.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I always always I want to be a keeper wildlofcare specialist.
That's what I wanted to Yep.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I always wanted to be a zoo keeper growing up
and when I was doing internships throughout college, even like
started my career doing seasonal positions. I tried every single animal.
I wanted to make sure. I just wanted to see.
I want to test all the waters. I tried marine mammals,
I did elephants, I did carnivores, I.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Did first a plethora.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I you know, I was open to everything and anything. Wow, okay,
So I wanted to open I kept my mind open
and want to keep every door open. And then my
first full time position ended up just being Gorilla. And
at that point I never worked great apes or primates
at that point. So I was like, all right, let's
try it. And you know these guys are you know,
like you said, four hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
I was so nervous my first time working with Gorilla.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Oh you were, Oh I was, you know, I as
like we said, like all you see is King Kong,
you know the.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
I mean, I've known these guys for a while, but
I haven't seen Monroe in a while, honestly, and he's really.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Big, super sure, and so I was a little nervous,
you know, like, especially when we go behind the scenes,
you get a closer personal right now, And I was like,
are you sure? Are we You know, you don't realize
how big they are until you're right next to that,
and so you know, after I've worked with gorillas for
almost over six years now, and so you know, I
kind of fell into it. Came out here to San
(26:41):
Diego four years ago and then I saw a gorilla
position was open, so I applied for it and got it,
and you know, continued my career with working with gorillas.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Sam. Absolutely love that everyone has like a different origin story,
and I love it for all the kids listening, especially
because I'm sure that someone's saying, like, I want to
be a gorilla wildlife care specialist, and I love for me.
What I took away from your store is keeping an
open mind and being adaptable because sometimes you're presented with
challengers or doors open up and maybe you're feeling some
kind of way right and you don't want to do
it and you're nervous about it, but you should grab
(27:10):
life by the reins, right and go for it, and
just go for it.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I mean, you know, just go all the way out.
You always want to try new things. That's my big
thing is I always want to try something new. I
always want to, you know, push the envelope and see
what else is out there.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Aw, Sam, this was amazing. Thank you, so much for that.
That's a great wait. I think to end today's episode
and thank you for this wonderful experience. A whole time
I've been distracted watching these two, just just living and
it's been the best. So for sharing some gorilla Nuncle Sam.
That was great. Yeah, oh guys, that was amazing. I
(27:42):
mean I'm always learning something neat with the wildlife care
specialist teams at the zoo in the park, they do
so much amazing work. So when you're cruising around the
Safari Park with the San Diego Zoo and you happen
to see those tangerds out there, give them a big
thank you and a big thumbs up for all the
work that they do. This was epic and I hope
you enjoyed today's episode about rilla is learn all about
the Safe Gorilla Program, what you can do to help
(28:03):
out in gorilla conservation. So stick around for more adventures,
whether it be the Zusafari Park. I don't want to
give a hint just yet, but I got some really
interesting things to share with you guys with the remaining
part of this season. You know what I'm gonna say,
I'm gonna take out I'm Marco went and have a
gorgeous day Stay wild. For more information about the San
(28:26):
Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to
SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio.
Our supervising producer is still in Fagan, and our sound
designers are Sierra Spring and Matt Russell. For more shows
from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Rick Schwartz
Marco Wendt
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