At 6:30 in the morning, Garth Irvine is in the kitchen preparing three fruit smoothies and two bottles of baby formula for those he cares for. This routine may seem average enough, but in this case there is one major distinction: the breakfast is for gorillas.
Irvine, a keeper at the zoo for 21 years, is one of two keepers primarily responsible for the care of Kakinga (30), Zuri (12), Barika (8), and Yewande (1). These four gorillas (with four new additions from the Bronx Zoo expected to be on display by the end of August) keep him very, very busy.
“My goal as a keeper of gorillas is to make their day as close to how it would be in the wild as possible. If they are going to spend a big portion of their day foraging for food that is what I want them to do. I rearrange their enclosure each and every day, moving nets and fire hoses, and adding and removing toys because I don’t want it to get stale, to be the same day as yesterday. That is my main purpose for being there, making sure what they are getting what they need to be physically healthy, and mentally as well.”
Irvine is openly gay, one of many keepers throughout the world that are also members of the GLBT community. In fact, zoo keeping is an often overlooked “stereotypical gay job.”
“It is a very caring profession. So many gay people are into animals; they love and pamper their pets. It is in some ways like nursing, you are caring for these creatures and you really get involved with them. It occurred to me that at every zoo I have ever visited I have always met gay keepers,” he said, adding his sexuality has never been an issue. “I was certainly not the first gay person at the Calgary Zoo. It was a non-issue. Part of it is that being a city facility, discrimination against being gay is not allowed, so I was lucky in that. But it is a profession that draws gay people, it really truly does.”
Irvine’s career has seen him work at West Edmonton Mall and Edmonton’s Valley Zoo, but the Calgary Zoo has become his home. He has had the opportunity to work with many of the over 1000 animals that call the zoo home, but the gorilla troop has become his favorite.
“Gorillas are a big sexy species but what I get out of them is they really challenge me. There are many things I do to enrich their lives, multitudes of feeders and toys and some have worked, some haven’t. Whenever I have one fail I think it is funny that the gorillas have outsmarted me once again. I really enjoy getting to stimulate them and make a difference in their lives. I am always researching and thinking of new things. One day I was walking to work and someone had thrown out a wine rack. I picked it up not knowing what I was going to do with it but I knew it would be useful. It is now a feeder. They keep me really challenged all the time to challenge them, and I really love that. I think it is great, the system we have had in the past, that you get to work everywhere because you find what you are good at and what you are not. They used to put me in the reptile house year after year, and I always liked reptiles but I really enjoy working with them now.”
Irvine has seen the evolution of not only the Calgary Zoo, but also zoos worldwide. Gone are the days of small cement and bar cages with animals pacing restlessly. Animal care has advanced in leaps and bounds, and providing the animals with the best care possible is the zoo’s number one priority.
“Every zoo I have ever been to in the world has some great stuff, and stuff that needs improvement, and ours is no exception. There are things that were acceptable 20 years ago, the worst of them are long gone now thankfully but there are always things that need to be improved. Unfortunately it comes down to money. There are things in the zoo that I would like to see torn down and replaced with something better. That doesn’t always necessarily mean bigger. Quality space is better than quantity in many respects.”
Unfortunately no matter how stellar the care may be, one thing is for certain in life. Everything will die. Over the course of a year Garth experienced this first hand with four major, unrelated gorilla deaths. An infant died just 12 days after being born in August 2006. In April 2008 adult female Tabitha died of a seizure, and a month later Julia of liver disease. Then in August of 2008, 22-year-old Donge died of complications from inflammatory intestinal disease, called diverticulitis. Even two years later, Garth gets visibly choked up when talking about it.
“It was a very difficult time for me. Never in my life did I dream we would go through so many deaths in a short period of time. …There has been an evolution in the way we deal with death with certain species. Something as intelligent and social as an elephant or gorilla, you have to meet the needs of the animals left behind. I felt very guilty because I had to leave town and left one of our keepers behind. I told her, I think Tabitha may die, if she does you make sure that the troop gets put back with her body for a period of time in hopes that they will understand what happened. When Julia died a few weeks later it was the same thing. She died with her head in my lap and her hand in mine. The vets said, we know you want to put her back with the others, we will stay away, call us to get the body when it is time. I checked on them periodically to see how the gorillas were reacting to her but mostly I just wanted to stay away and let them have their time with her. We did that every time.”
Having so many deaths in such a short time hadn’t happened before. Garth felt that the negative experience could be a learning one, and prepared a paper for a gorilla conference last January.
”There are only a few hundred gorilla keepers in the world and I know most of them, they had me in tears every single night in the bar prior to the presentation. I thought, how am I going to get up in front of 300 people and keep it together? I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be able to do it without dissolving into a puddle on the stage. I was ok with that once I came to terms with it because I realized no one was going to understand better than 300 gorilla keepers. So I told them if I started to lose it I would sit on the floor and just not look at them until I could get through it. I didn’t have to do that and I was very proud. Another keeper came up to me and said, I am really proud that you did that and put yourself through that because you have set the standard for how it should be done at every zoo now. When Julia died my partner said, I can’t believe what this is doing to you. I want to get you a job working with Galapagos tortoises, something that will outlive you so I never have to see you go through this again. A little bit of satisfaction can be found in that we did the right thing. We did the best we could for the gorillas that died and more importantly for the gorillas that were left. We let them do what they needed to do. For a couple of weeks after every death we broke routine and whatever they wanted to do was just fine. I am very pleased to say that we had the support of management to do that.”
The deaths have lead to the zoo coming under fire at time from animal rights activists and some of the public. While sometimes facilities make mistakes, the fact of the matter is that every living thing will die at some point.
“They die in the zoo, and every single animal in the zoo will die. It is only a matter of time until we have another high profile death because we have a number of animals that are getting older. I must admit I get tired of having things that have been news in the past being dragged up again and again. I don’t see the relevance. Yet when we have a red panda birth they don’t bring up things that are bad. I don’t lose sleep over it because if you look at the comments and support we received over something as silly as the knife incident, the majority were very supportive.”
The “knife incident” refers to a photo that appeared in the Calgary Herald on June 17th, showing Barika examining a knife that Irvine accidentally left in the enclosure. The story and photo made international news.
“People really for some reason pussyfoot around this subject with me. My family didn’t want to phone to ask if it was me. Someone got a lucky photo, and it was a fantastic photo, of a gorilla examining a knife, and the way she was holding it. It went nuclear, I couldn’t believe how far and wide the story went,” he recalled, adding that the way the zoo management handled it was appreciated. “My director said to me, how could we say anything, there is not a keeper anywhere in the world that hasn’t done the same thing, we just live in a different world now. It was a real learning experience for me. I am used to the fact that when I am in an animal enclosure I am photographed and that has never been much of an issue. Now knowing the way…that a photograph can be on the doorstep of the world in a few minutes, that is very different.”
He wanted to go on record in this interview to set a few things straight.
”Yes, I made a mistake. I dropped the knife in the enclosure and missed it. There are far more dangerous things than a knife that a gorilla could have like a camera battery that they may bite into and actually really do some damage to themselves. Gorillas are in many ways tough as nails. Should Barika have cut herself with the knife she would have put it down and walked away. It could have happened but it didn’t.”
Instead Barika placed it on a chair in the enclosure and walked away. “It was just a coincidence that she put it down. As soon as I heard the gorillas had a knife I knew exactly what had happened. I opened the door, she set the knife down and they came inside. Had she carried it inside they are trained to trade for stuff. If she realizes that she has something I really want, I have to up the ante. I once had an orangutan get my keys and it cost me half a box of produce because he knew I wanted them back very badly.”
The feedback on message boards and news sites was instantaneous, some amazed by how blown out of proportion the story was, while others called for drastic measures including firing Irvine and shutting down the zoo.
”There were a couple of people who sounded as if they would have been quite happy if I had been publicly hung, and I sort of understand it. I really demand the most of the zoo and myself, I really push myself and can be a pain in the ass. We need to do better and when something happens it should be addressed. …I don’t want to downplay it; it was a mistake that could have had some serious consequences but as instances go this was not dire or life threatening. To somebody from the outside it may have appeared that way. In some ways I am a little bit grateful to people who are not supportive of the zoo because they really push us to improve. The zoo supporters are fantastic and we couldn’t be here without them, but I want to see us improve and be the best zoo in the world. I want to see all of the zoological facilities get better. While some of what we do is really great by the standards now, 20 years from now it may not be. We have to continue to improve, educate ourselves, and spend the money to do so. I welcome the pressure.”
The best way to make Garth’s face light up is with one simple name: Yewande. The baby gorilla, who celebrated her first birthday on May 15th, is the second one born to Zuri. Her first baby was the one who died in 2006, but staff were hopeful Zuri would be a better mom the second time around. Unfortunately this was not the case, and staff had to take over bringing up the baby while ensuring that she still remained a gorilla.
“I really believed that Zuri was going to be a perfect mom this time so when she wasn’t it was a big surprise for me. While I am proud of myself and everyone involved. A lot of people put a lot of hours in to doing this, but Zuri gets a lot of the credit. While she is far from a perfect mom she was willing to work with us, never aggressive to us or the baby, just indifferent. It was more than she could handle and we had to step in.”
Garth sounds like a parent when he talks about her.
“I have never wanted children, ever, not even for one instant. This sort of made me think, maybe having a child wouldn’t be a terrible thing because this is pretty wonderful. At the same time I am so incredibly happy and proud that this baby is not growing up thinking she is human. I cherish the time I have had with her but the most important thing is that she knows she is a gorilla and is living with gorillas. I was very lucky to have that time but I would rather I hadn’t had it. I wish things had gone better. It probably sounds like I am lying because I loved what I got to do but it was a real unfortunate circumstance. Still the night we pulled that baby, I slept between the gorillas in adjoining cages on either side of me. Lying on a cot with this tiny four-pound infant gorilla asleep on my chest was one of the highlights of my life. Even though Kakinga wanted to kill me because I had his baby, it was absolutely magical.”
For more on Garth Irvine, including how to book guided tours of Africa with him, purchase wildlife photos and calendars visit www.GarthIrvine.com
Experience Garth’s life firsthand with the zoo’s “Zookeeper for a Day” program. For details on the zoos programs and ZooGala fundraiser visit www.calgaryzoo.com
