ARLINGTON, Va. – The Jane Goodall Institute has released an email sent by the primatologist and conservationist to the director of the Cincinnati Zoo expressing empathy with him over the weekend shooting of a gorilla in an effort to protect a small child who entered the primate’s habitat.
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In the message to zoo director Thane Maynard dated Sunday, May 29, the day after the shooting, Goodall writes that she feels sorry for Maynard having to defend a shooting that he “may disapprove of.” Goodall says it looked like the gorilla was putting an arm around the child and calls it “a devastating loss.”
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Goodall also asks about the reaction of the other gorillas and whether they were allowed to express grief.
Goodall is known for her decades of studying wild chimpanzees in Tanzania.
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