Gorillas

Recent outbreaks of deadly Ebola among people in Africa also killed thousands of gorillas, animals already threatened by hunting, a new study reported Friday. Outbreaks in Congo and Gabon in 2002 and 2003 killed as many as 5,500 gorillas, a research team led by Magdalena Bermejo of the University of Barcelona in Spain reported in the journal Science. "Add commercial hunting to the mix, and we have a recipe for rapid ecological extinction," the researchers wrote.

Authorities in Uganda have closed a forest park where rare mountain gorillas live, fearing that fighting could spill over the frontier from neighboring Rwanda and threaten tourists. "We have closed the Mgahinga National Park to tourists basically for their safety. Chances are very high fighting might spill over into the park," an official of the state-run Uganda National Parks said of Monday's action.

The number of rare mountain gorillas in central Africa has risen 17% over the last 15 years, despite war in the region, poaching and human incursions into the animals' habitat, a Rwandan wildlife official said. A census conducted in late 2003 showed the number of the endangered primates living in a mountain range straddling Rwanda, Congo and Uganda has grown to 380 from 324 in 1989, the time of the last census, said Fidel Ruzigandekwe of the Rwandan National Parks and Tourism Authority.

A 400-pound gorilla escaped from his enclosure and ran amok in a Rotterdam zoo, biting a woman, dragging her around and causing panic among dozens of visitors, officials said. The Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo was evacuated and the 11-year-old gorilla, Bokito, was eventually contained in a restaurant within the park, police spokeswoman Yvette de Rave said. Four people were injured, including the bitten woman, zoo director Ton Dorrestijn said. Bokito was sedated with a dart, a spokeswoman said.

A toddler fell into a gorilla exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo on Friday afternoon and was rescued by a female gorilla who cradled the child and brought him to zookeepers. The 3-year-old boy injured his head after falling 18 feet onto concrete in an area with seven gorillas. He was still alert when taken to a hospital, but was in critical condition at Loyola University Medical Center late Friday night.

The meeting of Viacom's board of directors came to order and Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing rose to speak. "You all know about Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford," Lansing told the executives, who had traveled to Hollywood for a business meeting and a chance to get a first-hand look at the studio that Viacom had won in a massive merger battle on Wall Street. "And now, I want you to meet Paramount's newest star," Lansing continued. With that, the door swung open and in stomped Amy--a gorilla.

The first gorilla born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo has died at age 35, elderly for a western lowland gorilla. Kumba, a female gorilla, apparently suffered from kidney failure, zoo spokeswoman Kelly McGrath said. Keepers decided to euthanize her. Kumba's birth in 1970 marked a turning point in how gorillas were handled in U.S. zoos, McGrath said. Previously, they were typically kept apart from other gorillas. Kumba was kept with her mother and later with other gorillas.

Rwanda's president joined villagers and conservation workers on the edges of Volcanoes National Park to name 30 rare mountain gorilla babies, in what the country hopes will be an annual ceremony for one of its biggest tourist attractions. Among the gorillas was the only recorded set of twins to survive to the age of 1. Conservation workers and researchers traditionally name primates they track after identifying each one based on the patterns formed by wrinkles on their faces.

A man shouting "I've come to kill a gorilla!" jumped into an enclosure at Melbourne Zoo on Monday and attacked a 220-pound female primate before officials stopped him, a zoo spokeswoman said. The man kicked and punched an adult female, who screamed in fear while protecting itself and a 5-year-old male, spokeswoman Judith Henkey said. She said the man, who suffered minor injuries from his jump, apparently has a history of mental illness. He was under observation at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

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 to death by officers.