The Toronto Zoo is asking visitors to help limit screen time for certain primates by refraining from showing cellphone videos to the facility’s gorillas.
The zoo posted signs outside the gorilla enclosure asking visitors not to use their phones to show photos or videos to the gorillas “as some content can be upsetting and affect their relationships and behavior within their family.”
Hollie Ross, behavioral husbandry supervisor at the zoo, said keepers have not yet noticed any significant behavioral changes in the primates, but officials want to ensure the animals’ lives remain as natural as possible. “We just want the gorillas to be able to be gorillas,” Ross told CP24.
“And when our guests come to the zoo, we want them to be able to see gorillas in a very natural state, and what they would be doing naturally — to sort of connect with them on that level.” Officials said gorilla named Nassir has been seen showing a particular interest in the videos on visitors’ phones.
Nassir, born in 2009, is “fascinated by videos and screen time would dominate his life if he had his way,” the zoo’s website states.
“We’ve had a lot of members and guests that actually will put their phones up to the glass and show him videos,” Maria Franke, the zoo’s director of wildlife conservation and welfare, told The Toronto Star. “And Nassir is so into those videos.
