Part 1: The Asian elephant has been closely associated with people for perhaps six millennia. Still, there are conflicting views on whether the Asian elephant has been domesticated instead of being a tamed wild animal.For example, some animal protection organizations argue that a captive Asian elephant...
The incredible story of Willie B was influenced by the aspirations of Mayor William Barry Hartsfield, who served twenty-four years as Mayor of Atlanta, and the leadership of Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who had the courage and the vision to reimagine Atlanta’s zoological park when...
In graduate school at the University of California at Davis, I specialized in primate socialization and attachment disruption when animals were separated from their mothers at an early age. I was as prepared as anyone to evaluate Willie B’s prospects for socialization, but his future...
This tale is the first in a three-part series about Willie B., Atlanta's iconic ape and one of the most famous gorillas in the world. Willie B., named after the long-serving Mayor of Atlanta, William B. Hartsfield, was captured in Cameroon, probably in 1960, and...
