Gorilla

DALLAS -- The scene at the Wilds of Africa exhibit was wilder than anything most zookeepers have witnessed in the jungle: A 340-pound gorilla breaks out of its enclosure and goes on a 40-minute rampage through a forest, snatching up a toddler with his teeth and attacking three other people before being shot by officers. Federal regulators are investigating the Dallas Zoo over Thursday's escape, zoo officials are trying to figure out how the gorilla broke out, and animal welfare advocates are questioning whether officers had to kill the beast.

It was a bit of a zoo at the Nebraska Medical Center over the weekend, when a special patient came in for jaw surgery. Motuba, a 27-year-old silverback gorilla, needed a CT scan after a scuffle Thursday night with another gorilla, said Doug Armstrong, director of animal health at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. The zoo can't perform the scan, so it contacted the hospital, whose staff has been consulted on animal cases in the past. "It wasn't life threatening but we knew we had to address it," Armstrong said.

DALLAS -- A cheetah could do it. So could a chimpanzee. But no one expected a stocky, knuckle-dragging, 340-pound gorilla to leap across a 12-foot-wide moat and a wall that separated him from visitors at the Dallas Zoo. But zoo investigators say that is exactly what happened the day 13-year-old Jabari escaped and went on a 40-minute rampage in March, snatching up a toddler with his teeth and injuring three other people before officers shot...

An elderly gorilla that lives at a Pennsylvania zoo has a new companion: a bunny named Panda. The Erie Zoo's gorilla, Samantha, has been without a full-time friend since the death of Rudy, a male gorilla, in 2005. But officials say the 47-year-old western lowland gorilla is too old to be paired with another gorilla. So they opted last month to introduce her to Panda, a Dutch rabbit, last month. The Erie Times-News ( http://bit.ly/yu3yzd) reports Samantha and Panda get along well.

TALLMADGE, Ohio - The chicken can keep prancing, and the gorilla can keep jumping. This northeast Ohio city has decided against trying to regulate costumed pitchmen advertising fast food, furniture, and other wares, especially considering the state of the economy. The advertising antics go on near Tallmadge Circle, the picturesque but heavily traveled center of this mostly residential city of 17,500. There’s a war memorial there surrounded by US and military flags, a monument recognizing townspeople who died serving their country, and a former town hall and church from...

It was a bit of a zoo at the Nebraska Medical Center over the weekend, when a special patient came in for jaw surgery. Motuba, a 27-year-old silverback gorilla, needed a CT scan after a scuffle Thursday night with another gorilla, said Doug Armstrong, director of animal health at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. The zoo can't perform the scan, so it contacted the hospital, whose staff has been consulted on animal cases in the past. "It wasn't life threatening but we knew we had to address it," Armstrong said.

LOS ANGELES - Take a trip to the zoo and you can see gorillas are a lot like us. But a new DNA study says we're even more similar than scientists thought. From the evolutionary family tree, you would expect our DNA to be the most similar to chimps, our closest relatives. The new work found that's true for the most part, but it also found that a sizable portion of our genome is closer to a gorilla's than to a chimp's. "The chimpanzee is often cited as ‘our closest living relative,' and this is certainly true based on total genome...

The manager of a cell phone store in Ohio called 911 to report a gorilla had been attacked by a banana. The Wireless Center in Strongsville, near Cleveland, advertises at curbside with a man in a gorilla suit. Manager Brandon Parham says he was watching last week as a kid dressed as a banana emerged from some bushes and took a flying leap at the store mascot. Parham says the attacker looked like a Spartan from the movie “300’’ — except he was a banana. The gorilla was knocked down but got back up, adjusted his head and went back to work.

Specialty glass maker Corning Inc. reports second-quarter results Wednesday that should illustrate whether demand is slowing for its liquid-crystal glass, used in flat-screen televisions. WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Whether and how fast LCD glass volume is slowing, plus fresh signs of how swiftly ultra-tough Gorilla glass is migrating from hand-held and tablet devices to high-end TVs. Corning commands more than 60 percent of the global market in LCD glass, which is its biggest business by far. But analysts worry that retail demand for LCD TVs featuring Corning's LCD glass may not be as strong this year as...

In the Chinese calendar, 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. On the movie calendar, call it the Summer of the Ape. The celebration began Memorial Day weekend, with the reappearance of Monkey, the golden langur voiced by Jackie Chan in “Kung Fu Panda 2.’’ Things really get swinging this Friday, when “Zookeeper’’ opens. Kevin James plays a Franklin Park Zoo animal attendant whose social life extends to going to T.G.I. Friday’s with a gorilla (voiced by Nick Nolte). Will it be Applebee’s, if there’s a sequel?

LOS ANGELES - Take a trip to the zoo and you can see gorillas are a lot like us. But a new DNA study says we're even more similar than scientists thought. From the evolutionary family tree, you would expect our DNA to be the most similar to chimps, our closest relatives. The new work found that's true for the most part, but it also found that a sizable portion of our genome is closer to a gorilla's than to a chimp's. "The chimpanzee is often cited as ‘our closest living relative,' and this is certainly true based on total genome sequence, but the gorilla is nearly as...

The Pittsburgh Zoo has a new baby gorilla in its midst. Zoo officials say 15-year-old Moka gave birth last week after a year-and-a-half courtship with the zoo's lead gorilla, 20-year-old Mrithi. Zookeepers don't yet know the baby's gender, but say it appears to weigh between three and five pounds. The new baby was born sometime after workers left the evening of Feb. 8. By the next morning the band of gorillas had grown from six to seven. The baby is the first gorilla born at the zoo since 2001.

CHICAGO - The endangered baby gorilla born nine days ago at the Lincoln Park Zoo has died. Zoo workers found the baby gorilla dead yesterday morning. The baby was being carried around by her mother. Workers let the mother gorilla, 16-year-old Bana, keep the baby for several hours "in order to make peace with what happened. " The zoo said Bana is a first-time mother. The baby's father is Kwan, a 22-year-old silverback gorilla. The baby was the first Western lowland gorilla born at the zoo since 2005.

By Sara Brown, Town Correspondent Kambiri, Franklin Park Zoo's baby gorilla, turned one on Thursday--and a Boston cupcake shop is joining in her celebration. In Kambiri's honor, Sweet Cupcakes has created a special edition "Bananas for the zoo" cupcake, a dark chocolate cake with homemade banana buttercream frosting and a banana chip garnish. The special cupcake will be available from Saturday, November 5 through Friday, November 11 at Sweet's four locations in Back Bay, downtown, and Harvard Square.

Kit is a lot of gorilla. A western lowland gorilla, to be precise. Full name, Kitombe. At 25 years old, he weighs 343 pounds. Although he stands only about 5 feet tall, his sheer mass is stunning. But it's the gravity of his expression that's most imposing. Standing behind a locked metal grate in the Tropical Forest at Franklin Park Zoo, he keeps his deep-set eyes on visitors even as zookeeper Brandi Baitchman puts him through his paces. At her request, he offers up his hands, feet, and torso for her to touch through openings in the grate.

Two female gorillas arrived Friday at a zoo in southeastern Brazil to help an older member of the opposite sex end more than two decades of bachelorhood. Kifta and Imbi, both age 11, arrived from the Port Lympne and Howletts wild animal parks in Kent, England, said Belo Horizonte zoo spokeswoman Angela Lutterbach. After a 30-to 40-day quarantine period, the two younger gorillas will join 37-year-old Idi, who has been until now the only gorilla in captivity in South America, Lutterbach said.

INDIANAPOLIS -- That 400-pound gorilla costume Theo Epstein was sneaking around in outside of Fenway on Halloween night? Looks like the one that's been sitting on Peyton Manning's back for a few years. Manning doesn't have to admit his lack of success against New England bothers him. Anyone with Manning's tremendous competitive nature, who has put up mind-boggling statistics (a record 49 touchdown passes last season), must have to bite hard on a pillow every time the Patriots are mentioned.

It wasn't the money. It wasn't burnout. It wasn't a feeling of fulfillment over winning the World Series. It wasn't the lack of personal privacy in Boston. It wasn't Dan Shaughnessy's celebrated Sunday column. Which means that, no, he insists, it wasn't Larry Lucchino. So why was Theo Epstein officially saying goodbye yesterday? He could no longer put his "heart and soul" into the job, 24/7/365, the way he has for the past three years. That's what he said.

Specialty glass maker Corning Inc. reports second-quarter results Wednesday that should illustrate whether demand is slowing for its liquid-crystal glass, used in flat-screen televisions. WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Whether and how fast LCD glass volume is slowing, plus fresh signs of how swiftly ultra-tough Gorilla glass is migrating from hand-held and tablet devices to high-end TVs. Corning commands more than 60 percent of the global market in LCD glass, which is its biggest business by far. But analysts worry that retail demand for LCD TVs featuring Corning's LCD glass may not be as strong this year as...