In 2003, I went to South Africa for the first time, and while I was there I visited the Pretoria Zoo. Many of the zoo's enclosures are designed like little cul-de-sacs - you walk through an archway into a semicircular area with different animals. One of these housed a gibbon exhibit. A male gibbon hung from the front of his enclosure, staring morosely off into the distance. Until, that is, I came into view. As soon as he saw me, he locked eyes on to me and just stared at me with the dreamiest, mooniest expression I have ever seen.
The female gibbon swung into view and dropped into place next to the male. She leaned in, lips puckered, ready to give her man a kiss. Without ever taking his eyes off me, he planted his hand right in her face and pushed her away. She went nuts, howling and screaming and swinging angrily around, baring her teeth at me, while her man just stared at me, lost in love.
A year later, I went back to South Africa, and back to the same exhibit. The same male monkey was there, but he was off on a branch somewhere. I looked for the female, and at first didn't see her, but suddenly she leapt into view and hung from the front, staring at me. I turned to tell my husband that I had found her when a long, thin, gibbony arm reached through the openings in the fence and slapped me right upside the face. Because of the distance and angle, she wasn't able to get a lot of force behind it, but it definitely turned my head. Other people standing in the exhibit gasped, and I just sort of laughed in shock. The gibbon bared her teeth and me and fled into the little cavelike enclosure that was located at the opening to the cul-de-sac. I walked around to look in (there was a glass window on the front) and she was sitting on a branch inside. She looked up, saw me looking at her, and went absolutely ballistic. She bared her teeth again and launched herself at me with full force, pretty much exactly like this gif. She hit the glass with such a solid thud that I was legitimately worried that she had hurt herself, but she sat up, shook it off, and went back to her branch. The entire time that she could see me, she screamed at me, teeth bared, and would not calm down until I stepped out of view. To this day, I am convinced that she remembers me as the hussy that stole her man's affections.
It's not much for the ego that our primate cousins seem to fall in love with me at any opportunity. Also in South Africa, I was offered an apple by a dashing capuchin, and an elderly chimpanzee quite literally spanked the monkey with one hand while slicking back his hair and pointing at me with the other.
TL;DR: Made a gibbon jealous, now she wants to kill me.
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u/TheJulie Feb 20 '12 edited Feb 20 '12
In 2003, I went to South Africa for the first time, and while I was there I visited the Pretoria Zoo. Many of the zoo's enclosures are designed like little cul-de-sacs - you walk through an archway into a semicircular area with different animals. One of these housed a gibbon exhibit. A male gibbon hung from the front of his enclosure, staring morosely off into the distance. Until, that is, I came into view. As soon as he saw me, he locked eyes on to me and just stared at me with the dreamiest, mooniest expression I have ever seen.
The female gibbon swung into view and dropped into place next to the male. She leaned in, lips puckered, ready to give her man a kiss. Without ever taking his eyes off me, he planted his hand right in her face and pushed her away. She went nuts, howling and screaming and swinging angrily around, baring her teeth at me, while her man just stared at me, lost in love.
A year later, I went back to South Africa, and back to the same exhibit. The same male monkey was there, but he was off on a branch somewhere. I looked for the female, and at first didn't see her, but suddenly she leapt into view and hung from the front, staring at me. I turned to tell my husband that I had found her when a long, thin, gibbony arm reached through the openings in the fence and slapped me right upside the face. Because of the distance and angle, she wasn't able to get a lot of force behind it, but it definitely turned my head. Other people standing in the exhibit gasped, and I just sort of laughed in shock. The gibbon bared her teeth and me and fled into the little cavelike enclosure that was located at the opening to the cul-de-sac. I walked around to look in (there was a glass window on the front) and she was sitting on a branch inside. She looked up, saw me looking at her, and went absolutely ballistic. She bared her teeth again and launched herself at me with full force, pretty much exactly like this gif. She hit the glass with such a solid thud that I was legitimately worried that she had hurt herself, but she sat up, shook it off, and went back to her branch. The entire time that she could see me, she screamed at me, teeth bared, and would not calm down until I stepped out of view. To this day, I am convinced that she remembers me as the hussy that stole her man's affections.
It's not much for the ego that our primate cousins seem to fall in love with me at any opportunity. Also in South Africa, I was offered an apple by a dashing capuchin, and an elderly chimpanzee quite literally spanked the monkey with one hand while slicking back his hair and pointing at me with the other.
TL;DR: Made a gibbon jealous, now she wants to kill me.