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Cincinnati Zoo Discusses Gorilla Incident. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 30, 2016 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:00:05]

HOWARD SOMERS, FATHER OF IRAQ VETERAN WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE: So, if we can have the VA really, really do what they do best, we feel this is the best way to help our veterans get the best, absolute best medical care that they can receive.

JEAN SOMERS, MOTHER OF IRAQ VETERAN WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE: And then have veterans who do not have those specific issues, broken arms, that kind of thing, go out into the community, still the VA, under the VA's financial umbrella, but not have to go to an actual VA for care.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: OK. OK.

Jean and Howard, thank you so much. We will talk again. We will have breakfast again. I truly appreciate both of you.

And, you know, thank you so much to your -- just your son for his service in the past. I appreciate both of you. Thank you.

H. SOMERS: Thank you, Brooke.

J. SOMERS: Thank you, Brooke.

H. SOMERS: We also have partners all over the country, especially the Naslins (ph) in Iowa, who lost their son Dylan (ph), and so many others that we're thinking of today.

BALDWIN: Operation Engage America. Howard and Jean, thank you.

J. SOMERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Have to move with some breaking news. Take you live now to the Cincinnati Zoo. Let's dip in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

THANE MAYNARD, Director CINCINNATI ZOO: We had an all-employee meeting this morning, early in the morning. I have never seen so many people here at 7:45 in the morning for a holiday, that it showed whether people were off today or not they came because they really cared.

The purpose of that meeting was different than this. It was for people to have a chance to share their feelings. There were tears. There were hugs. The people that knew Harambe the best, his keepers, shared a lot of stories about him.

But everybody at the zoo feels the loss. There's no doubt about it.

That does not just mean a dozen or so keepers in our primate department or couple hundred zoo employees, but we have 1,000 volunteers at the zoo. We have hundreds of thousands of people who are members of this zoo and, of course, the entire community is very involved with the Cincinnati Zoo. So, it is a big loss.

That said, we are very glad that the little boy is OK. That is one happy thing in a dangerous and bad story. Naturally, we did not take the shooting of Harambe lightly. But that child's life was in danger.

And people who question that or are Monday-morning quarterbacks or second-guessers don't understand that you can't take a risk with a silverback gorilla. They're very big, three times bigger than a man, six times stronger than that. This is a dangerous animal.

Now, I know, using photos, videos they got, she doesn't seem dangerous. We're talking about an animal with one hand that I have seen with one hand take a coconut and crush it. He was disoriented. He had never had anything like that going on.

And that also led to the decision, of course, not to dart the animal. Almost everybody knows if you were to, say, dart your household pet, if you were to receive a dart yourself, there would be a pretty dramatic response.

And if you were an animal like a gorilla and didn't understand it, you could have some sort of displaced aggression that would go right at what is the new thing in your area. So, in the real world, you make difficult calls, but you have to make them, and the safety of that child was paramount.

I'm proud of our team that handled it and I'm proud of our team that has handled everything since. So, we have had lots of discussions with Harambe's keepers, who have told amazing stories of him coming here three years ago. You may know he's baby Gladys' half-brother.

And he was on the trajectory. He was starting to mature. He was 17. He was headed toward breeding in a few years. It takes a while, just like teenage boys, teenage girls take a while to mature, until they can have a family of their own. And, of course, that won't happen, but he certainly is missed, especially by those keepers that cared for him.

His nickname was handsome Harrari -- excuse me -- handsome Harambe. He was a great-looking gorilla, but they said also a smart gorilla, that he was very easy to train and do medical procedures or to look in his mouth, check his teeth, things like that.

Anyway, before I take questions, I will also say, in tough times, you know who your friends are. We have heard from thousands of people around the world, colleagues all the way to Jane Goodall, zoo directors from all over the world, with both sympathy, with support for a difficult decision.

[15:05:03]

And people that know gorillas well, people that research them in the wild, people that work with them in captivity know exactly what decision we made and why. So I'm happy to take some questions.

QUESTION: Talk about the security barrier.

(CROSSTALK)

Hang one. One -- one at a time.

John.

QUESTION: Well, you have talked about the dart and the tranquilizer situation. Was there any other alternative that was looked at by the dangerous response team to distract Harambe in any way?

MAYNARD: Good question.

Most of you who have been here the other day or have heard this, but the sequence of events was, when we realized what had happened, both our dangerous response team came, since the fire department was on grounds, and our keepers very alertly used the special call they have to bring the animals in.

The females responded immediately and came in. The male, because he was stimulated, excited and distracted by this little boy, did not go in. That would have been an ideal situation, but he did not go in. And he had started to drag the boy around.

An important thing to note is, when you see snapshots -- thank you -- or you see clips, you might not see everything that happened. There are quotes directly from Cincinnati Fire Department in their official report that this child was being dragged around. His head was banging on concrete. This was not a gentle thing.

The child was at risk. We're very fortunate that he's OK. So, when it was determined that the child was being injured, not potentially injured, but was being injured, both down in the moat and then up on the ground, then we had to make a decision to shoot him, and we did.

QUESTION: How are the other gorillas doing?

MAYNARD: Yes, that's a good question. How are the other gorillas doing?

We have two groups. We have the two females that lived with him and then we have another group of seven, which is a big family group with Jomo. The two that were living with him, obviously, the next morning were sort of looking around, much like periodically animals in zoos get shipped from one zoo to another.

They don't know what happened, but they're doing fine and they're all resting. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) show any signs of loss? They don't -- they

didn't see anything happen?

MAYNARD: They did not see anything happen. They were inside.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) No sadness, anything like that?

MAYNARD: I don't think so. No.

QUESTION: Aren't gorillas very empathetic beings?

MAYNARD: Gorillas are a lot like us. They live in family groups and they're very, very close.

QUESTION: Is the zoo negligent at all? How were there not more structural safeguards in place that keep the child from even being able to get in there in the first place?

MAYNARD: The exhibit is safe. We're inspected both by the USDA and the AZA, which is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, by the AZA every five years with accreditation, by the USDA twice a year.

The barriers are safe. The barriers exceed any required protocols. The trouble with barriers is that, whatever the barrier is, some people can get past it, much the same way you might lock your car and sometimes people get in your car. And, no, the zoo is not negligent.

QUESTION: Does more need to be done? Are you reviewing the structural barriers there or any other exhibits?

MAYNARD: As you can imagine, when anything happens, any emergency or crisis, naturally, we are looking at that situation.

The situation we have now is safe. It's the same as it has been. That said, we lost an incredibly magnificent animal that is an important part of our program. So, it's important for us to make sure our animals are safe. So, yes, we will look at that.

QUESTION: ... that barrier at all? Was there any kind of an issue with the barrier?

MAYNARD: No.

QUESTION: So, nothing wrong with the fence? (OFF-MIKE) same as it had been in the last 30-plus years?

MAYNARD: Correct.

QUESTION: What was the failure here then? How did the child get in? Where was the failure? You mentioned a failure. How did the child get in? Where was the failure? Was there the breakdown? If everything was up to code, was it the parents' fault? Was it the guardrail's fault? Where do you place blame?

MAYNARD: I'm not a big finger-pointer. Politicians and pundits points fingers. We live in the real world and we make real decisions. People, kids and other, can climb over barriers. We work really hard

to make sure that zoo is safe and our guests are safe. We have over 1.6 million a year. That said, people can climb over barriers. And that's what happened.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Isn't that the point of a barrier, so that people can't get over them or get through them?

MAYNARD: As I said, the exhibit is safe and the barrier's safe.

That said, any of us in this room could climb over barriers, if we choose.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: But we're adults. This is a child.

MAYNARD: I understand that.

QUESTION: So, we know better than to climb over. A child who doesn't understand the risk that he's in by climbing under, why would there not be more to keep -- to make that impossible?

MAYNARD: The barrier's adequate.

And we all need to work to make sure that our families and our kids are safe, whether you're visiting a zoo or you're visiting a shopping mall.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:10:05]

QUESTION: In the status quo, what is changing? This has happened. What is being...

MAYNARD: Sure.

We're looking at it to determine what's the optimum situation? We're also in the midst of making big changes over the next year out there. We're doubling the size of the exhibit with a big indoor gorilla greenhouse. So, as we look at that...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) plans at all?

MAYNARD: Oh, no, no. That's important for our long-term breeding program and gorilla conservation.

QUESTION: Now that you have had time to review what happened, looking back, I know you were in crisis mode at the time -- looking back, would you make the same decision again with the animal?

MAYNARD: Yes. Looking back, we would make the same decision. I know that after it

is over and the child is safe, it's easy, like a Monday-morning quarterback, to look at it and say, wow, wow, wow, don't we need to do this differently?

The people that say that, A, don't understand primate biology and silverback gorillas and the danger the child was in, and, B, were not there at an important time to make important decisions. We stand by our decision and we would make the same call today.

QUESTION: You mentioned the day of the event that you had not yet spoken with the family. Have you been in touch with the family since then?

MAYNARD: We have not been in touch with the family. They have requested privacy. I don't blame them. And everyone at the zoo is relieved that the little boy is OK.

QUESTION: Does the zoo plan on pressing charges against the parents (OFF-MIKE)

MAYNARD: That would not be a good plan. The police were here. The police did not cite anyone. There's not a legal action. But I think they know we saved that little boy's life.

QUESTION: How about the future of the breeding program? What is going to happen now that -- and tell us how significant this is that he's gone.

MAYNARD: Sure.

Gorillas are one of the most endangered animals in this world. There are only 360 lowland gorillas in AZA-accredited zoos throughout North America, from Canada all the way to Mexico.

Ours is a leading program. We have had 50 babies born at our zoo in the last 46 years. We will continue our breeding program. The breeding group we currently have that has three youngsters in it is still intact. And folks see them when they come to the zoo.

The two lone females that are not part of that group, over time, may end up with another male in their group, as we grow that. But we will see. And as I said, we're going to double the size of our exhibit space out there, which will allow us to have more and different configuration with our gorillas. But...

QUESTION: Like you said, you only saw snapshots of that incident on film. And as we all know, that incident went on for about 10 minutes. Are you aware of any other video of this ongoing ordeal that might give more of a perspective of the seriousness of the situation, as it continued to unfold?

MAYNARD: I'm not a video expert, but we talked extensively with people who were there, our security team, as well as members from the Cincinnati Fire Department who were there. And they are all unanimous that that child wasn't just in danger, but was being dragged around by the ankle and being hurt.

QUESTION: Can you give us a step-by-step of that 10 minutes as it started to unfold? We see maybe -- maybe, what, about two minutes of what happened. It was a 10-minute incident. Do you have a step-by- step of what happened, say, after that video shut off?

MAYNARD: Sure.

A brief overview is, a little before 4:00 on Saturday, this young child, 4-year-old, I think, evidently went over the barrier and then through the bushes and into the moat. It's about 15 feet down into a foot-and-a-half of water. So he must be a tough little kid, because that's a lot to do right there.

He was splashing around in the water. Naturally, the visitors -- it was a crowded day -- we had over 7,000 people in the zoo -- they were reacting. And Harambe noticed that and looked.

On seeing him, he went down. He went into the water with him, swished him around in the water some, mostly by the ankle and then decided he needed to take him up onto the land. He carried him up the ladder, put him up on top, and then again continued to do the same thing.

You know, gorillas are not polar bears. He wasn't trying to eat the animal, obviously -- or eat the child, but he was disoriented and wanted to get the child to sort of stay there and probably be like a gorilla would, which is different than the situation, because, obviously, the child was upset and people were screaming.

During that time, our security team emptied the exhibit. And the dangerous animal response team officer came and dispatched Harambe. And the reason was that it was a life-threatening situation and a silverback gorilla is a very dangerous animal. It would be a very dangerous animal to us, but particularly a dangerous animal to a little kid.

[15:15:08]

QUESTION: Any word yet on when the exhibit will reopen?

MAYNARD: Hopefully by next weekend. So...

QUESTION: You said the boy went over the barrier.

(CROSSTALK)

MAYNARD: That's what I understand.

QUESTION: ... that he went under.

MAYNARD: Well, my understanding from talking to folks that were there since that time is that he went over.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Can you walk us through what you understand how -- how he was able to get in?

MAYNARD: Do you know any 4-year-olds? They can climb over anything. So, he climbed over the top.

QUESTION: He just climbed over?

MAYNARD: Yes.

QUESTION: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: It doesn't sound like anybody is taking responsibility for what happened, the zoo, the mother. We're all just chalking this up as an accident and everyone can go home. Does that sit OK with you?

MAYNARD: The Cincinnati Zoo is taking responsibility.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: You said there was nothing wrong with the barrier, though.

MAYNARD: We're the ones that took the loss on this. And it's very important to us.

You can trust me. A lot of people express concerns. A lot of people disagree perhaps with it, but it doesn't affect anybody as much as it affects the people here at the zoo.

QUESTION: How tall is this barrier?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... any wrongdoing here. You say the barrier's fine. The 4-year-old was just being a 4-year-old.

MAYNARD: That's not exactly what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, we had a very, very difficult situation. And we made a very difficult call and handled it.

QUESTION: Do you think fault should lie with anyone, though?

MAYNARD: As I said, I'm not here to point fingers about fault.

QUESTION: Has that barrier been the same for the last few years? Have there been any changes to it? It's kind of like a rail at the top and then open with tension wires. Has it been like that for a few years?

MAYNARD: It's the same barrier that's been there for 38 years, yes.

QUESTION: Have you checked all the other locations, like the bear locations, the rhino location, the elephant, because they have similar setups, with loose tension wires, a few feet of bushes, and then a moat?

Couldn't that same situation happen at those animal enclosures as well?

MAYNARD: Naturally, at the Cincinnati Zoo, we take safety very seriously.

And we are all the time keenly interested in continuous improvement. And so if you're familiar with the zoo, you will know, at different times, as things need to be changed, as they wear out, we add in more fences, guards, safety measurements.

We do make sure that those areas are safe. But, as I said, you can lock your car, you can lock your house. But if somebody really wants to get in, they can. But we take safety very seriously.

QUESTION: How does that compare with other zoos that have similar kind of displays, the barrier wall you guys have?

MAYNARD: Sure. Very similar, very similar.

QUESTION: And to be clear, there are no vertical steel bars? Do I understand that right? Is it just a horizontal-type bar?

MAYNARD: Every eight feet or so. Every eight feet or so. It's a substantial rail. It's made out of stainless steel and it's been there 38 years.

QUESTION: Vertical bars every eight feet?

MAYNARD: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: But not close together?

MAYNARD: Correct. Correct.

QUESTION: So will you look at upgrading that then, so that a 4-year- old just being a 4-year-old can't climb over and end up in this kind of situation?

MAYNARD: Absolutely.

We're in the middle of looking at that right now. And the rationale behind that is we just lost one of our most important animals. So, we have to make sure our animals are safe.

QUESTION: Children as well. This is what -- parents bring their children to the zoo and they should feel safe knowing that their kid just being a kid isn't going to be able to end up in this situation. I would imagine that's a priority as well.

MAYNARD: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: So, what is the industry standard for barriers? Is it -- are you just like every other zoo that has this? Can this happen anywhere else?

MAYNARD: Well, I mean, tragedies, mistakes, accidents can happen all the time. There's no guaranteeing against those. But all over the zoo, we take

safety very seriously and we review our barriers very seriously, both the barriers to keep people out and the barriers to keep animals in, making sure that the fences are high enough to keep them in and the barriers are high enough to keep people out.

QUESTION: You mentioned that the barriers are reviewed by someone, are reviewed by -- there's someone keeping the zoo accountable for -- if their barriers are meeting standards?

MAYNARD: Sure. Accredited zoos -- accredited zoos in North America are accredited through a group called the AZA, which is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Every five years, we go through and accreditation process that is increasingly arduous year by year as zoos become more professional. In addition to that, zoos are regulated by USDA. And twice a year, we have veterinary inspections that look at everything from exhibit areas to behind-the-scenes areas to our care and feeding and medical care of our collection.

QUESTION: So, you're -- you said that the exhibit could be open again by next weekend and that you're reviewing possible changes to keep people safe. Will those safeguards or any kind of new safeguards be in place when the exhibit reopens?

MAYNARD: The exhibit will be completely safe when it opens.

(CROSSTALK)

MAYNARD: I don't know the answer to what changes might or might not be. But we are reviewing that, and, naturally, taking this very, very seriously.

[15:20:01]

This is a very big loss to the zoo, not just an emotional loss, but a loss to a key conservation and breeding program we run. So, making sure the animals stay safe, making sure the visitors stay safe is our priority.

QUESTION: But you're not sure if there will be any changes in place when the exhibit reopens?

MAYNARD: As I said, we're looking how to do that now, so I don't know the answer.

QUESTION: Was there a specific protocol for the DART team? Like, in other words, do they practice this specific scenario, and if they do, what was the last time that they actually practiced it?

MAYNARD: Sure.

That's a good question. I'm very proud of our DART team, our dangerous animal response team, and our security team. They do drills regularly. They train regularly. They go to the shooting range regularly. They are certified by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department. And, clearly, they are steady at the moment of truth.

We have never had a situation like this before at the zoo, but they meet and both do physical drills, as well as meet to do sort of tabletop discussion drills, and they had done that as recently as last week, which was them doing that in response to a similar situation that happened in a zoo in Chile with I think predators that were -- people and predators in an exhibit.

QUESTION: Has there ever been another incident like this at an exhibit or in a zoo?

MAYNARD: Never where we have had to kill an animal. We have had accidents at the zoo. We had a zookeeper lose her arm to a polar bear, but she was not in the exhibit. We have had other people hurt by animals. We have never in a situation where their life was at risk like this.

QUESTION: How many times was Harambe shot?

MAYNARD: Once.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) right now?

MAYNARD: There's a future.

We have, of course, a renowned assisted reproduction program called CREW, the Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife. Those are reproductive biologists. They have collected viable sperm from him, which are important to bank on a real endangered species for genetic reasons and future population in zoos.

In addition, we have been contacted by a number of scientists working on genetics issues and other issues with lowland gorillas. And so most of that is in the function of storing tissue for potential future, both research, as well as possible breeding purposes.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) his gene pool then? This is not the end of his gene pool? His sperm was saved, some of it?

MAYNARD: His sperm was saved. It's not the end of his gene pool. In addition, he is -- he and his lineage are part of an ongoing breeding program.

As I mentioned, Gladys, the famous now 3- or 4-year-old gorilla that is in our exhibit, also came from the zoo in Brownsville, Texas, and she's his half-sister.

QUESTION: And you praised the way the response was handled, but the boy was in there for 10 minutes. Could they have reacted quicker?

MAYNARD: I think we reacted remarkably quickly. And we were remarkably fortunate that the boy wasn't hurt.

QUESTION: How tall this is barrier and how many feet of bushes were there before the drop-off?

MAYNARD: The barrier is a little over three-feet-high, and the distance between the barrier and the -- if you will, the drop zone there, is about four-feet deep.

QUESTION: It's a 15-foot drop and you're in the water?

MAYNARD: Correct.

QUESTION: Thane, as you try to balance the safety of the patrons vs. their ability to access and see the animals, is there a takeaway, is there a message for parents and people who take kids to the zoo moving forward?

MAYNARD: Sure.

Very fortunately, this zoo is a longstanding beloved institution in Cincinnati. So I think people recognize that we care about our animals. I spent the last couple of days here at the zoo walking on the grounds and many, many people, strangers come up and talk about, they know this is hard and they're sorry about Harambe, but they care about him.

In terms of a message, that, yes, everybody should keep ahold of their kids, keep an eye on them, here or anywhere, at the shopping mall, right, the schoolyard? But the zoo is a safe place. This is the one time this sort of thing has happened in 143 years.

QUESTION: What do you think about the backlash that you and the mother have received over the last few days?

MAYNARD: I'm old enough I don't pay much attention to social media. And most of the -- from the legitimate media, it's all been pretty positive and from our colleagues particularly so.

QUESTION: Were there surveillance cameras in the enclosure or anywhere in that complex area?

MAYNARD: Do you mean like caught the whole...

(CROSSTALK)

MAYNARD: No.

QUESTION: Does the zoo have surveillance cameras? Most zoos or facilities do have those to watch the animals overnight or in case there is an issue.

Do you have any surveillance cameras in the Gorilla World area?

MAYNARD: I don't believe we do because I haven't seen -- the kind of video you're talking about.

We have a lot of sort of closed-circuit video in areas where we aren't, such as in the back of the buildings, so we can observe animals when we are not here. [15:25:05]

QUESTION: Do you know have statistics on how many children come to the zoo every year?

MAYNARD: Well, if it's half our visitors, it would be 800,000 so I guess maybe it's more than half our visitors. I know some families come with one parent and three kids, so a million, million kids a year probably. That would be my guess.

QUESTION: You're the expert. Non-experts are saying, oh, it looked like the gorilla was protecting -- it looked like the gorilla was protecting. What was the gorilla doing? Was he treating this boy like a baby gorilla?

MAYNARD: The gorilla was clearly agitated. The gorilla was clearly disoriented.

And so the idea of waiting and treating with a hypodermic was not a good idea. That would have definitely created alarm in the male gorilla. And, as I'm sure you know, when you dart an animal or even if you yourself go to the hospital, anesthetic doesn't work in one second. It works over a period of a few minutes to 10 minutes.

So, the risk was due to the power of that animal.

QUESTION: But was he trying to protect the child, in your eyes, as someone who does study gorillas?

MAYNARD: In my eyes, he was acting erratically -- erratically. He was disoriented. And it's due to his strength. That's where the danger was.

QUESTION: Is there a monetary value that the zoo is going to have to take -- get a hit on?

MAYNARD: That's a good question.

Today, we live in a world where endangered species aren't bought and sold, so when we breed cheetahs at our breeding farm and then we send them off to other zoos, it's just part of breeding agreement. And certainly the same thing is true with gorillas, so they're not an animal that you can say, OK, well, they're a million dollars to get one.

It's a process of like a big computerized dating game with other zoos trading back and forth.

QUESTION: Is there any legislation that you guys are potentially scared to face with the death of the animal? Are there sanctions in place in the Endangered Species Act that protect zoos in situations like this from any national or federal like litigation?

MAYNARD: No, I think we're good in that regard.

As you run a zoo with wild animals, you have to have a number of priorities, and certainly one of them is safety of our visitors, our employees, as well as safety of our animals. So...

QUESTION: Are you in favor of increasing signage to greater warn children and parents about getting close to those barricades and the barriers that (OFF-MIKE)

BALDWIN: I think we lost the signal, but we have been listening -- oh, we are going back? Let's go back to the Cincinnati Zoo.

QUESTION: ... changes will be made?

MAYNARD: Well, you know, we have a lot of signs at the zoo about don't feed the animals or don't cross the barriers or while animals are dangerous.

We can certainly look at that and put a couple more up. The theme would be respect the animals. That's what we're trying to do is to not have people, whether it's by throwing food in there or certainly by climbing in there, in one way or another, harming our animals or causing the death of our animals.

QUESTION: Just to clarify, is Harambe's body still here currently physically?

MAYNARD: Yes.

QUESTION: Are you having any sort of memorial service from the staff here or anything like that in sort of remembrance of him?

MAYNARD: I don't think we have a formal memorial service planned.

A step of that today was the full zoo staff coming together just to share our thoughts and memories and to talk about it and to cry a little bit.

QUESTION: You said that your main concern was his strength.

And in the beginning, you spoke a little bit about him being able to crush a coconut with his hand. Can you give us any other examples of just the sheer power this gorilla had?

MAYNARD: Well, he was over 420 pounds. So, that's bigger than anybody on the Cincinnati Bengals, as an example.

His arms -- I'm sure you're familiar with gorillas. Most primates, but not all, most primates have a big upper body and a small lower body, unlike humans, so his arms are as big as our legs. They're very big, very strong appendages.

The difference is, they have a huge hand that's extremely strong. And that's where his strength comes from, his chest, his arms. And that was the risk.

QUESTION: What's the reaction from all of the other zoos? You mentioned, did I hear right, more than 1,000 zoo officials have talked. What is their reaction?

MAYNARD: They are obviously sympathetic and empathetic.

They know how much people in zoos love their animals. They know that it's a challenge with an iconic species like a silverback lowland gorilla, because gorillas are a beloved species. It's just true. We all know his name. Right? We don't know every zebra's name, but do know -- we our gorillas' names. And they know that we're going through a lot and they offer their support.

[15:30:02]

What do you think it says that they are all -- that they are all backing you up?

MAYNARD: They're professionals who understand the animal business. They understand the power of gorillas. They understand tough decisions have to be made.