Part 2

Anthro201C_ZooFieldNotes.pdf

Jillian Schumann 29 Anthro 201C November 10, 2018 Field Notes

A) First visit: Sunday, September 30th, 2018 from 11:45 am to 12:00 pm. Second visit: Sunday, October 14, 2018 from 11:20 am to 12:45 pm. Third visit: Thursday, October 25, 2018 from 11:50 am to 1:20 pm Fourth visit: Saturday, November 10, 2018 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

B) Location: Lincoln Park Zoo Regenstein Center for African Apes

C) Pre-Fieldwork:

-On the left is the hand and foot of a young male gorilla. Most visitors found the gorillas hands and feet fascinating to look at. On the bottom right show the broad back of a one the silverback gorillas.

D) Observations/Descriptions: Family Group: There was two groups of Gorillas living at the Lincoln Park Zoo. When You first walk into the center you will see the family group consisting of females young and old, and a male silverback.

Layout: The family group has an indoor and outdoor enclosure. The indoor enclosure allows them enough room to roam and find space for themselves. They tend to stay indoors even on warm and nice weather days. But on the rare occasion they do go outside, it is nice to see the family roam and interact in the large outdoor enclosure available for them. These pictures show the family groups outdoor and indoor enclosures.

Young Male Group: Across the hall of the center is the enclosure of four young male gorillas.

Layout: This group also has an indoor and outdoor enclosure, but I never once saw these gorillas go out into their outdoor enclosure. Just like the Family group the enclosure has blankets and cardboard for the gorillas to play with but the young males seem to have more large toys in their enclosure. These pictures show the gorillas indoor enclosure. In the bottom photo, the windows to left are the access to their outdoor enclosure.

C) Pre-Fieldwork:

I selected primatology and Gorillas because of my interest in animal behaviorism and animal rights. I find the idea of observing gorillas intriguing. Going into this project I am interested in observing the gorillas interactions with each other. In the past I have not had any specialized or specific experience with primatology or gorillas, but i’ve always been interested in studying apes. Observations and descriptions: -Overall the gorilla’s schedules consist of mainly resting and eating. They occasionally get up and wander around around their enclosures. I noticed that female and younger gorillas are more active then their adult male counterparts. You will likely only see adult males get up to find another place to sleep or to find more food.

-This was a common position to find the males in their enclosures. Every visit I would would walk over to find one them lying near a window. The visitors of the Zoo seemed to love seeing the males lying around. They seemed to get a kick out of them laying in various humorous positions.

- I found the gorillas eye contact with the visitors very interesting. The gorillas in

the young male enclosure would sit or lay near the glass and either stair or give a side eye glance to the people behind the glass.

-I personally gravitated towards observing the young males enclosure because I had more personal one on one experiences. Very much like the one captured in this picture. These experiences gave me a better ability to understand the gorillas behaviors and experience in the zoo enclosure.

-This was another moment I captured while observing the young males. This picture stood out to me in particular because of the emotion on the gorilla’s face. I feel to a visator observing these beautiful creatures it’s hard to not see yourself in such a face.

-The ranging reactions from the visitors of the Zoo proved to be very interesting. The adults reactions were predictable. Most crowded around a certain gorilla that was close to the glass and either started taking pictures or talked to their loved ones about the

ape. There was usually a handful of high strung visitors that found it necessary to loudly knock on the glass to try and wake up the gorillas. I actually found the kid’s reactions to the gorillas to be the most entertaining and interesting. Alot of kids were either intimidated or too scared to come up too close to the glass. But a good amount of kids were very curious about the apes. They made observations like the gorillas use the blankets to make “nests” and that the gorillas have ears that look like theirs. -The photo on the left shows a male gorilla sleeping in his makeshift “nest”. The photo on the right shows a female gorilla picking out bugs from a log. Visitors found this particularly entertaining.

-The interactions I observed between gorillas was mainly in the family group. The few that happened with the young males were usually brief spurts of them showing their dominance. The gorillas that mainly interacted with each other were the females and the young. Adult males in both enclosures tended to keep to themselves.

- In the left photo are females from the family group. And on the right are two males from the young male enclosure. It is a common sight to see the males basking in the sun near the windows.

Post fieldwork: Initially I was interested in observing the gorillas interactions with each other but as I was doing the field notes I became more interested in the gorillas interactions between the ape and the visitors.