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Articles from January 9th 2004 Rocky Mountain News.


"Move over Emeril" link:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2563652,00.html

"Curious Evelyn" sidebar link:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2563648,00.html


Move over Emeril: Fugitive ape stars in 'Evelyn Live'

Gorilla kicks it up a notch as she enters Denver Zoo kitchen

By Jim Sheeler, Rocky Mountain News
January 9, 2004

Next to an empty gorilla exhibit at the Denver Zoo, the informational sign 
explained it all:

"Smart as a great ape," the sign read. "Brains and brawn."


Within a few feet of the sign, a member of the supposedly superior 
species,Homo sapiens, apparently left a door open inside the Great Apes 
Building on Thursday, allowing a 250-pound female lowland gorilla named 
Evelyn to sneak into the keeper's kitchen, where she "rummaged around" until 
being tranquilized by zoo veterinarians.

"She was always in a safe building, completely behind the scenes, behind 
multiple layers of security," said Ana Bowie, spokesperson for the Denver 
Zoo. "She would have had to go through four secure doorways to access any 
public area."

Still, the "code red" crackled over the walkie-talkies of all zoo employees 
at 10:15 a.m., triggering an automatic lockdown that involved veterinarians 
with tranquilizer guns and zoo employees whizzing around in golf carts, 
ushering about 50 visitors into safe buildings.

"In the case of people in the Primate Panorama, we put them in the Emerald 
Forest," Bowie said.

Evelyn has been at the Denver Zoo since April and is in town only 
temporarily. Her permanent home is in Los Angeles, where an elaborate ape 
exhibit is under construction - in part to keep Evelyn from adding to her 
lengthy rap sheet.

Since her birth at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1976, she's escaped several times 
- including a Steve McQueen-esque caper involving her using a vine to climb 
out of her exhibit and wander the zoo grounds. During that spree, zookeepers 
ended up having to tranquilize Evelyn, and she subsequently passed out in a 
men's room.

During Thursday's 45-minute escapade, she was observed "snooping around the 
kitchen," Bowie said, possibly searching the various fruits and vegetables 
stored there, and "at some point, she found some rubber hoses."

"She was partially hand-raised, so she's very comfortable in a situation 
with humans around her," Bowie said. "And she's 27, so she's just a 
laid-back, sweet gorilla - who's curious about stuff in the kitchen."

After being darted by a veterinarian, Evelyn was taken to the zoo hospital 
for observation and then returned to her troop.

As for any punishment? That will be for the other species - the humans. "You 
don't fix the gorilla, you fix the exhibit," Bowie said. "There certainly 
won't be any repercussions for Evelyn."

Near the closed great apes exhibit, which is expected to reopen today, 
3-year-old Emily Fairbairn wasn't so sure.

"He got out of his cage," she said as she learned that she couldn't see 
Evelyn. "They put him in timeout."

Nearby hung another sign:

"Humans and other primates," it read. "Closer than you may think."


sheelerj AT RockyMountainNews.com


Curious Evelyn's other escapes

January 9, 2004

Before her escapade on Thursday at the Denver Zoo, the 250-pound lowland 
gorrilla escaped several other times from her permanent home at the Los 
Angeles Zoo:

• She jumped on one of her companion's backs to climb over a wall.

• She used a vine to climb from a moat, and scaled a wall

• After failing to fall for the lure of a box of bananas during one escape, 
she was spooked by television helicopters and had to be tranquilized. She 
passed out in a men's restroom .

• During another escape, she swatted a bystander's bottom.

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