Six years since Haramabe and the Cincinnati Zoo is still making headlines

Shaw Coggin Staff Writer

Controversy has struck the Cincinnati Zoo again. Many might know the Cincinnati Zoo for being the former home of beloved gorilla and internet meme Harambe. In fact, it was the famed gorilla’s home until his controversial death in 2016.

With the Harambe drama, many questioned the idea of zoos and the safety of their animals. The National Library of Medicine researched the idea back in 2019 and concluded that these zoos are, in fact, harming the animals — no matter how well taken care of they are.

“While the physical needs of animals are met in captivity, the conditions of confinement can result in physiolog- ical stress,” said Clare Parker Fischer and L. Michael Romero who conducted the study.

Sophomore environmental science major Sloan Freeman believes in the accuracy of this test.

“I’m sure there’s a huge stress factor of it as well as an entire human dependence,” Freeman said. “They’re entirely dependent on us for food. We can’t communicate with them. We don’t entirely know what needs they have or what needs they want. We’re just assuming and giving it to them as we see fit.”

The topic has recently come back into the minds of the public with the new controversy that the Cincinnati Zoo is facing. Back in 2017, the zoo announced the pregnancy of a hippo named Bibi. They welcomed the calf, Fiona, later that year. Not long after this, Fiona’s dad, Henry, passed away and was replaced by 19-yearold Tucker. Tucker, too, was welcomed in quickly, being the new “boyfriend” of Bibi.

In April of 2022, it was announced that Bibi was having another child, this time, though, she was on birth control, and it was Tucker’s was the father. The calf, Fritz, was welcomed into the world on Aug. 3, 2022. Fritz’ birth was announced via video of him meeting his half-sister, Fiona.

The real drama arose though when the zoo made a statement regarding Tucker and Fiona which brought to light the fact that the two were mating. Many are obviously upset with the situation, as Tucker fathered Fiona’s stepbrother. The zoo mentioned this in their statement, when they said that the relationship was a “bloat,” as Fiona was on birth control.

Many have also brought up the fact that the last hippo that Tucker got pregnant, Bibi, was on birth control too. This led to the zoo releasing an official statement regarding the situation, in which they said that “nature found a way and ignored our calendar.”

The third and final crazy story to strike the Cincinnati Zoo came in only a couple weeks ago, when it was announced that the zoo opened its doors to recover a wild cat with cocaine in its system.

The situation goes back to January but was only made public recently due to legal reasons. The wild cat was kept as a pet and escaped its owner during a police visiting Amsterdam. stop. From there, it was wandering the streets of Cincinnati with cocaine that it ingested somewhere along the way.

Amsterdam is known for its lenient laws concerning prostitution, alcohol and drugs, and these loose laws are what draw many tourists to the city in the first place. Now, Amsterdam is contemplating imposing hours on brothels and clubs to discourage the rowdy tourism that makes the city less appealing to its residents.

Leaders in the Netherlands, as well as other European cities, are now waiting to see how the changes in Amsterdam affect the citizens. If it is positive, there is a strong possibility that other countries will follow suit.

With these new controversies coming to light, it is understandable that the conversation of how morally right these zoos are would come back into popularity.

Much like her fellow student, Freeman, Morgan Gosdin, freshman psychology major, also believes in the accuracy of Fischer and Romero’s study.

“The relationship that the animals have with one another is going to be different than how it is in the wild because there’s going to be external factors,” Gosdin said.

“With humans incorporated into the equation, they’ll do whatever they feel like since they don’t have much references for how they do act, because they aren’t in a big group of animals.”