Voices from the Ape House

by Beth Armstrong

Overview

Exploring the history humans share with gorillas, Voices from the Ape House offers a behind-the-scenes look at the complicated social lives of western lowland gorillas through the eyes of a devoted zookeeper. The memoir traces Beth Armstrong's love and fascination for animals, from her childhood to her work with captive primates as an adult. Through her eyes, readers sense the awe and privilege of working with these animals at the Columbus Zoo. Individual gorillas there had an enormous effect on her life, shaping and influencing her commitment to improving gorilla husbandry and to involving her zoo in taking an active role to protect gorillas in the wild.

Through anecdotal stories, readers get a glimpse into the fascinating lives of gorillas--the familiar gentleness of mothers and fathers toward their infants, power plays and social climbing, the unruly nature of teenagers, the capacity for humor, and the shared sadness by group members as they mourn the death of one of their own. In the end, Armstrong's conflict with captivity and her lifelong fondness for these animals helped shape a zoo program dedicated to gorilla conservation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814255711
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Publication date:	03/10/2020
Edition description:	1
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	670,579
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Beth Armstrong spent much of her life caring for and observing gorillas--first as a keeper and then as head keeper at the Columbus Zoo, 1982-1996. She became a passionate proponent and voice for gorillas in the wild--and many other species--as the first Field Conservation Coordinator at the Columbus and Brevard Zoos, respectively. She continues to promote the role of zoos in supporting fieldwork that actively protects great ape species in the wild.

Read an Excerpt

It is always the smell I remember. Opening the back kitchen door to the Ape House lets loose a wave of gorilla—a thick deep pungent odor that envelops me as I unlock the door to let myself in. The aroma rolls out, dissipating into the early morning cool. By end of day, I will smell like a gorilla, their perfume clinging to my clothes, my hair, my skin.

The gorillas hear me. The click of the huge padlock alerts them that I have arrived and another day has begun. I hear their welcoming vocalizations, a deep rumbling, each greeting as distinct as the individual animal that elicits it. I cross the kitchen to the solid wooden sliding door that opens to the back keeper aisle and unlock it. As I slide it to the right, it reveals Colo, the first gorilla born in captivity, the matriarch of our gorillas, sitting in her usual dignified way at her barred back door. She has half a grapefruit husk perched snug on her head, perfectly balanced on her sagittal crest. A crown, if you will. She looks at me in such a dead-on serious way— I turn away to hide my smile. She looks silly, so sincere and thoroughly imperial. How does she pull it off?

“Good Morning, Colo,” I say as she carefully watches me. I have never been one of her favorites. Our initial meeting on my first day in the Ape House didn’t go well and I don’t think she has ever forgotten or forgiven me. She tolerates me, but I don’t think she’s overly fond of me.
 
Colo is one of the most beautiful gorillas I will ever meet. The contours of her face are heart shaped; her brown eyes are penetrating with an unusual rim of light gray around each iris. Her hands and feet are long and narrow. Her fingers and toes are equally long. In a word, they are elegant. Her coal-black skin is flawlessly uniform, her thick hair coat healthy and a deep black. She has grayed out as she has gotten older, but she has none of the reddish hair on her head that many of our other females have. She reminds me of a New York City matron from a well-to-dofamily: always smartly turned out, hair and make-up in place, wearing the perfect Chanel suit.

I turn back to the kitchen, start a pot of coffee, soak the eight food bins filled with vegetables and fruit, and then grab the vitamin bottles and begin my walk down the back aisle, distributing vitamins to each of the gorillas. This daily morning walk ensures that the gorillas receive their vitamin C and multivitamin tablets. But more importantly, it allows us to check on them, to give them a quick look-see to make sure all is OK. Over the years, this walk will reveal much heartache and joy. It will make known that in the depths of the night their lives went on without us, that babies were born, beloved troop members died—a daily reminder that wereally are periphery to their complicated lives. We may be charged with “keeping” them, but they never will be “ours.”

We keepers are the fortunate few in this world to bear witness to their lives, to every once in a while be asked to join in a bout of play or chase, to be accepted as an observer watching the careful tenderness of a silverback touching his newborn son for the first time, or to unexpectedly come upon a boisterous round of tickling between two usually reserved adults, and backing away quietly so as not to interrupt them. We few hear the sad mourning call after the death of a troop member, the haunting refrain wafting through the Ape House, its tender tendrils looking into every nook and cranny as if searching for the lost group member. We are, quite simply, privileged.
 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1             Ape House

Chapter 2             Childhood

Chapter 3             Clarity

Chapter 4             Primate Behavior 101

Chapter 5             Beginnings

Chapter 6             Chimpanzees

Chapter 7             Rebels

Chapter 8             Dispelling Myths

Chapter 9             Leadership

Chapter 10          An Extraordinary Year

Chapter 11          Construction

Chapter 12          Bongo

Chapter 13          Back to the Children’s Zoo

Chapter 14          More Primate Experience

Chapter 15          A Bigger World

Chapter 16          Apenheul

Chapter 17          Back to Gorillas

Chapter 18          Toni-Baloney

Chapter 19          Moments of Magic

Chapter 20          The Kitchen Table and Front Bench

Chapter 21          Humans and Gorillas

Chapter 22          Oscar

Chapter 23          Holidays

Chapter 24          Intrusions and Mistakes

Chapter 25          A Family

Chapter 26          Building a Gorilla Troop

Chapter 27          Creative Sparks

Chapter 28          Learning to Be a Gorilla

Chapter 29          Keeper Etiquette

Chapter 30          Bridgette, Bongo, and Fossey

Chapter 31          What’s in a Name?

Chapter 32          Everyone Has a Story

Chapter 33          Lulu—a Game Changer

Chapter 34          A New Life for Bathsheba

Chapter 35          Behind the Scenes

Chapter 36          Monumental Changes

Chapter 37          Rainy Days

Chapter 38          Storytelling

Chapter 39          Something Bigger than Us

Chapter 40          Friends

Chapter 41          Mosuba’s Road Trip

Chapter 42          People I Have Met

Chapter 43          Molly

Chapter 44          Saturday Nights

Chapter 45          Bongo and Fossey

Chapter 46          Mumbah and Pongi

Chapter 47          Social Beings

Chapter 48          Why We Do Conservation

Chapter 49          Teenagers

Chapter 50          Voices Past and Present

Afterword

Editorial Reviews

12/23/2019

First-time author Armstrong tells of her work with primates at the Columbus Zoo in an intriguing but somewhat disappointing memoir. Beginning there as a volunteer in 1979 at age 22, and then continuing as a primate keeper after being hired two years later, Armstrong vividly recalls the Ape House’s “cold, unforgiving, concrete shell” and its “thick deep pungent odor.” Emphasizing the privilege of being able to observe gorillas, chimpanzees, and other primates up close, and her sadness at not being able to provide them with a more natural environment, she describes her daily routine—toting food buckets, distributing vitamins and protein drinks, peeling oranges, gathering debris, and participating in grooming routines. Armstrong captures a sense of the house as a strange and sometimes dangerous world, one that finds her alone and defenseless among immensely powerful and sometimes aggressive creatures—though the gorillas are gentle, the chimps are often rowdy, sometimes pelting her with feces. In sections set outside the house, Armstrong writes less successfully about her involvement with a program for raising gorillas born in captivity. Moreover, copious descriptions of each new gorilla family she encounters in her work may overwhelm readers. The rich, raw material deserves a better treatment than this intermittently involving account. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Armstrong was in the forefront of exchanging experiences with other zoos around the world, developing a network of relationships that spread advances made in gorilla husbandry and zoo management....Though the author's discussions of zoo management are ... engaging, the most heart-touching material is found in the profiles of the gorillas. A pleasing gathering of distinct personalities and unique stories from the ape house."--Kirkus Reviews


"Beth Armstrong turns a revealing account of her career as an ape keeper into a love song for an extraordinary species. She captures the poignant tension between the magic of interacting closely with gorillas in captivity and the desperate need to support them in the wild. Her intimate revelations beautifully demonstrate that storytelling has a vital role to play in inspiring the next generation of conservationists." --Dr. Richard Wrangham, author of The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution


"Gorillas are also individuals, with unique quirks, personalities, and histories, and Armstrong writes about them with insight, intimacy, and heart in her lovely new memoir, Voices from the Ape House." --Dave Ghose, Columbus Monthly


"Voices from the Ape House is a powerful journey through a remarkable time in zoological history. Throughout, Beth Armstrong examines the unique relationship between animals and people--showing that there is so much more to be learned as we work every day to conserve these magnificent creatures." --Jack Hanna, host of Jack Hanna's Into the Wild

"This beautifully written, heartfelt account of a zookeeper's experiences when in the company of gorillas testifies to the richness and rewards of human-animal coexistence. It is a must-read for all wildlife enthusiasts and certainly for budding zookeepers." --Richard Johnstone Scott, former head gorilla keeper at Howletts Wild Animal Park and Jersey Island Zoo and author of Jambo: A Gorilla's Story

From the Publisher

2020-01-16
A gorilla keeper's memoir about her years (1982-1996) at the Columbus Zoo.

Armstrong began her career when zoos were on the cusp of rethinking their mission and their responsibilities regarding the animals in their care. It was a roiling time in the zoo community, with new ideas challenging traditional practices. Early on, the author found her niche in the zoo's ape house, where even the simple chores gave her pleasure as they brought her close to the gorillas. In a comfortable, conversational writing style, she composes short, crisp stories about her encounters with the great apes. She eschews the chart, table, and figure approach of behavioral research, instead relying on a purely anecdotal telling of her real-life experiences with the gorillas. One of her first lessons was that keepers serve as the first advocates for the gorillas in captivity. Armstrong chronicles the processes of introducing hay for nesting and providing playthings for entertainment and structures to climb on and swing from. Today, when many zoos have created entire habitats for their apes, these elemental changes may seem negligible, but they were the first steps in fashioning suitable environments in which the apes could thrive rather than just survive. Armstrong was in the forefront of exchanging experiences with other zoos around the world, developing a network of relationships that spread advances made in gorilla husbandry and zoo management. The zoo's philosophy became "Do the right thing for the right reasons," guided by insights from the ape house: "Never ever presume anything; the gorillas will tell you through obvious and not so obvious ways what they want, what they need. Never bring your presumption to the fore as that will predictably get someone hurt, either a gorilla or a keeper." Though the author's discussions of zoo management are mostly engaging, the most heart-touching material is found in the profiles of the gorillas.

A pleasing gathering of distinct personalities and unique stories from the ape house.

Kirkus Reviews