Samson: In retrospect, was this gorilla happy?

I took my kids to the zoo yesterday, and I was blown away. I hadn't been there in a long time, and most of my zoo memories, I realized, are from school field trips. But this visit, I was really impressed with the new cat house (plate of glass or no plate of glass, it's thrilling to be so close to a tiger!), the dinosaur special exhibit (really only because I have two dino-loving preschoolers) and the primate house.

But the primate house got me thinking about Samson, the lowland gorilla-turned-icon who lived in the Milwaukee County Zoo during the 70s. (He died of a heart attack on Nov. 21, 1981.) Most people who grew up in Milwaukee love Samson -- probably out of nostalgia.

 

But yesterday, I started thinking about Samson's depressing living environment -- especially compared to the posh, modern primate "apartments" -- and I wondered if he was happy at our zoo.

Thinking back, he really didn't seem very content. I remember him running and throwing all 650 pounds of himself against the glass, causing spectators to shriek with horror at the sound, and the thought of him actually crashing through. Was he really trying to break out, or was he just earning his keep and providing us with a show?

I also remember him, shall we say, "shocking the monkey" in the corner of his linoleum-floored space, and while doing it, staring right into the crowd with an intense, almost angry, look on his face.

Was his behavior a reminder that -- back then anyway -- animals in captivity were often miserable? Perhaps. But the good news is that the primates I saw yesterday seemed generally very happy. One monkey even smiled at me, flashing his gnarly-but-cute teeth.