Four students from High Tech High (Tyler, Madalyn, Laura, and Daniel) are interning with the San Diego Zoo as Teen Reporters, sharing some of the fun experiences they’ve had at the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park.

As we were going upstairs to the feeding area with Fernando, a keeper for the gorillas, the gorillas knew that he had food for them to eat. They started raising their hands and clapping them, trying to get Fernando’s attention so he could throw some food at them. He threw so many heads of lettuce and fruit for the gorillas to eat. It was really amazing that some of the gorillas could catch the food when Fernando threw it! I thought that it was hysterical that they would hold their lettuce in one hand and raise their other hand asking for more. After a while, some gorillas had a whole salad bar, which finally made them content enough to sit down and eat.

There are two troops of gorillas at the San Diego Zoo. I was wondering why there were two different troops, so I asked Fernando. He said that there are two alpha males and that they couldn’t be compatible since there could only be one alpha male per group. The group that was out currently had some young babies and they were very active. They were playing around with each other and the male broke them up. It was a little frightening to hear the male making these “hooting” sounds, but the keeper stated that it was a misconception about gorillas. Gorillas do make these sounds and beat their chest to look fierce, but it is mainly a bluff to scare whatever the male thinks is a threat.

Gorillas are endangered and they are getting affected by deforestation. Their loss of habitat is because we are cutting down trees for lumber and also to clear paths to mine for a material called coltan. This is a mineral that is found in a lot of technology, like cell phones. Fernando emphasized the importance of recycling our cell phones at local electronic stores or even at the Zoo! Recycling the cellular phones can reduce the amount of coltan mining because the coltan can be reused in new cell phones. Since there will be less mining, the gorillas will not have to deal with a loss of habitat as much.

I really enjoyed watching Fernando tossing the gorilla’s food into the exhibit while the gorillas stood there with their hands raised up high. Even for some gorillas, if the food was right next to their feet, they didn’t bother to pick it up, they wanted to catch the food and eat it. It’s interesting, but strange, that gorillas could act so much like us humans. They watch out for each other, they love to eat, and they like to play around. My favorite part was when a gorilla came up right next to the wall and asked for some food through its hand raising gestures. Gorillas are one of my favorite animals at the Zoo because there’s so many of them and they are really fun to watch!

Daniel Kim is a student at High Tech High in San Diego.

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