Ape Evolves Into Hero For Humans Gorilla Gets Worldwide Admiration
Next to the mailbox for George Rabb, director of Brookfield Zoo, sits one for Binti Jua.
With all due respect to Rabb, he probably needs, in the world’s eyes, an explanatory title after his name more than the gorilla does at this point.
Though the story of the lowland ape who rescued a child who had fallen into her habitat Aug. 16 largely has faded from the local news, the tale has continued to spread around the world, making Binti’s name recognizable from Australia to Spain.
Indeed, even as lines at the zoo have returned to almost normal levels, the gorilla’s turn as international superstar appears far from over. In fact, interest has spiked again in the last week as media around the world make inquiries for upcoming wrap-ups about notable stories of 1996.
Hence, the need for Binti’s mailbox, in which letters arrive weekly.
Just last week, for example, a missive came from a group of schoolchildren in Argentina who had heard the story and had been prompted to study gorillas.
The kids wrote for information on the “life and customs” of Binti Jua.
“In our city, there isn’t a zoo,” the children said in their letter. “That’s why we’re desirous of receiving news by you. Congratulations with all our heart!”
The child who fell into Binti’s pit still is going to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., for treatment but is expected to make a full recovery, according to his doctors. The family of the injured boy never has commented publicly, and it continues to decline interviews and asks that its name be withheld.
For Binti, there have been letters, notes from well-wishers and requests for hand prints and pictures, plus copies of press dispatches. Among them was a letter addressed to “Madame Binti Jua, Heroine Gorilla” from an “admirer” in Florida.
Though the rush of letters and queries has slowed, surprised zoo officials say it hasn’t stopped.
On Wednesday, a letter arrived from a New York woman whose nickname is “Binty.”
“I was so glad and proud that my ‘namesake’ came through with such flying colors,” wrote the woman, who had acquired the moniker as a child.
At the zoo, visitors still stand in front of the gorilla exhibit and ask keepers, “Which one is Binti?”
A photographer from a national magazine is in town for a story that will add to Binti’s bulging box of clips. In the United States alone, there have been 700 newspaper and magazine stories and 2,000 TV and radio segments about the gorilla.
As the attention persists, zoo officials say they carefully are negotiating the line between exploiting a terrible accident and responding to the unending clamor for information.
Keepers have declined interviews with half a dozen talk shows considered too sensationalistic. Zoo officials have allowed generic gorilla toys that already had been on sale at the gift shop to remain on shelves, but they have refused to develop special Binti buttons, T-shirts or plush toys.
“I was approached by people who said, ‘The zoo could make big bucks off of this,’ but we just weren’t interested,” said Sondra Katzen, media relations manager at the zoo and Binti’s liaison with the press.