“There’s no good evidence that captive apes are having any positive effect on their wild relatives,” said Marc Bekoff, a behavioral ecologist and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado. Others deride most zoos as little more than amusement parks with educational placards that few people bother to read. You don’t get that emotional bond from an IMAX movie.” Walsh, a biological anthropologist at Cambridge University who works on gorilla conservation in Africa.

“I remember going to the Milwaukee zoo when I was a kid and seeing the gorilla,” said Peter D. Some experts believe that well-designed zoos play an essential educational role, and that exposure to a flesh-and-blood ape can be a transformative experience, especially for children. Researchers also disagree on whether we should continue breeding apes in captivity, and if so, to what end. Barbara Smuts, a renowned primatologist at the University of Michigan, recently distributed a petition asking that the other gorillas at the Cincinnati Zoo be relocated to a sanctuary far from the ogling, screeching crowds of their clothed relations.

Gorilla vs ape