The second life

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JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Jenny Rough.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming up next: The World History Book.

Ten years ago, a toddler fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. Cell phone cameras captured the ordeal in a video that soon went mega-viral, bringing international attention to zoo safety, ‘animal rights’, and one 450-pound silverback gorilla who quickly became a household name.

ROUGH: The death of “Harambe” soon turned into that strange internet phenomenon: a meme.

WORLD’s Maria Baer reports.

MARIA BAER: It’s nearly 4 pm at the Cincinnati Zoo on Saturday, May 28th, 2016. The sunny day has brought one of the biggest crowds of the year to the zoo. Visitors are ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Western Lowland Gorillas. Their open exhibit sits at the bottom of a steep slope, bordered by a three-foot railing and a few cables.

AUDIO: [Sound of crowd]

Suddenly a woman screams. A three-year-old boy has scrambled over the short barrier and into the exhibit.

AUDIO: [Screaming]

Isaiah Dickerson stumbles through a small copse of bushes and then falls roughly 15 feet into the moat that winds through the gorilla habitat.

In seconds, the gorilla troop’s dominant male, a 450-pound silverback named Harambe, approaches the boy. In a video that will soon go viral, Harambe is seen dragging Dickerson by the ankle through the stream.

AUDIO: Mommy’s right here!

The boy doesn’t cry out — but his mother, watching from above, does.

AUDIO: Mommy loves you! I’m right here!

Quickly, nearby zookeepers blast a special call to lure the gorillas back into their inner enclosure. The females comply immediately. But Harambe, distracted and agitated by Dickerson and the yells of the crowd, does not. Zookeepers call the fire department.

ABC: And a three-year-old child has fallen into the gorilla cage.

For ten minutes, Harambe violently drags Dickerson around the exhibit. Responders begin ushering onlookers out of the area. When the zoo’s Dangerous Animal Response Team arrives, they make what will prove to be a deeply controversial decision.

ABC: A zoo under fire for shooting and killing an endangered gorilla instead of tranquilizing him after the animal dragged a child around its enclosure…

Zoo officials shoot and kill Harambe with a shotgun, reasoning that a tranquilizer dart would have taken too long to kick in — and might have agitated him further. Rescue workers retrieve Dickerson. He’s taken to a nearby hospital where he’s diagnosed with a concussion before being sent home that night with his family.

The next day, zoo director Thane Maynard defends the decision.

MAYNARD: That child’s life was in danger. People who question that, who are our Monday morning quarterbacks, or second-guessers don’t understand that you can’t take a risk with a silverback… we’re talking about an animal that can with one hand, that I’ve seen, take a coconut and crush it.

Animal rights groups are outraged. PETA releases a statement suggesting Harambe was actually protecting the child, “the same way any human would.” They say the incident proves animals shouldn’t be kept in zoos.

ANCHOR: Dozens of people gathered here on the street corner, the entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo in remembrance of Harambe, who they say died too soon.

The tension highlights the worldview differences between those who believe animals have the same moral value, and should have the same rights, as humans — and those who believe in the unique sanctity of human life.

Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost primate expert, says it’s possible Harambe was protecting the child. But she defends the zoo’s decision to kill the gorilla.

So does Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of the nearby Columbus Zoo.

HANNA: Ask anybody viewing this right now. If that was your child or grandchild, would you want to wait for a tranquilizer with a 450, 500 pound gorilla? No.

Soon the national media picks up the story.

ANCHOR: Visited by more than a million people during his lifetime, Harambe’s name is now known around the world, after a video of his final moments, this dramatic encounter with a toddler, exploded online.

Even the women of The View weigh in — and blame spreads.

GOLDBERG: I’m sorry, you know, when you have animals…there should not be a way for a kid to climb up and over, slide in and under, there just should not be a way.

Commentators and protestors begin criticizing the zoo’s low barrier to the gorilla exhibit. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sends inspectors. They declare the barrier around Harambe’s exhibit “outdated” and “inadequate.” So the zoo tears it down and builds a new, taller one. They also install security cameras. The exhibit reopens ten days after the incident.

AUDIO: And of course today’s a big day. Cincinnati’s ready to see gorillas again.

Meanwhile, backlash also mounts against Dickerson’s mother. The local county prosecutor announces an investigation into whether she was criminally negligent. After a home visit from children’s services, the investigation is short-lived.

DETERS: After total review of the evidence, witness statements, we have concluded that no charges will be filed against the mother…

In the summer following the incident, Harambe’s death becomes a catalyst of change for online discourse. Intense disagreement over the incident turns the whole thing into one of the earliest examples of a meme. That’s a viral incident that becomes an ironic shorthand on social media and the subject of countless jokes and song parodies.

PARODY: I’m here without Harambe, and he’s still on my lonely mind…

Ten years later, the meme survives, with at least one TikTok user recently posting “want to feel old? The Harambe kid is now a teenager.”

Experts estimate there are 175,000 western lowland gorillas left in the world, with around 765 living in zoos. Before Harambe died, he was being groomed to breed. But in 2023, The Cincinnati Zoo announced it had brought three more male gorillas into its habitat, hoping they’ll take up the mantle.

That’s this week’s World History Book, I’m Maria Baer.

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