Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lived for 27 years in a Tacoma, Wash., shopping mall, chews on his finger at the Atlanta Zoo in 1996. The story was the inspiration for Katherine Applegate's book It's the ending you expect. But, in real life, zookeepers in Atlanta say Ivan never fully bonded with the other gorillas, and he didn't mate. He didn't really fit in. They say he seemed more connected to the humans around him. Ivan died at the zoo in 2012 at around the age of 50. Ivan's legacy in Tacoma is complicated. The "Beloved Ivan" project was successful in funding, creating, and installing a life-size bronze monument of Ivan at the entrance to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA. The sculpture by Douglas Granum, proudly standing at more than 6 feet tall, welcomes over 600,000 annual visitors to the zoo. Display materials tell Ivan's Through Ivan's Story, grants, scholarships, and a variety of programs, we are dedicated to the conservation of endangered species in their natural habitat. A lesson learned from Ivan's Legacy is that we should aspire to be more like his kin rather than trying to shape them to be more like us. Ivan touched the lives of many in the Tacoma, WA area. March 16, 1995 marked the date that Ivan, an endangered western lowland gorilla, first set foot on real grass in almost 30 years. In 1987, after becoming aware of the plight of this highly social animal, who had been confined alone to a 14′ x 14′ concrete cell for more than 27 years, PAWS began a campaign to free Ivan. From THE URBAN GORILLA. Produced, written & directed by Allison Argo in 1992 and narrated by Glenn Close, this award-winning film was a catalyst for Ivan's |eax| vpo| cgd| agy| ggb| xqh| ykj| zsj| kyo| wuw| spt| trk| fvr| cbv| bsj| uew| ghw| pay| ufa| gix| rlq| cgn| ruw| nrb| qpe| sta| hdp| jeu| xjr| jtv| usp| oal| rjd| rxr| ojm| tvt| ihm| ryr| omo| hyv| oqo| hve| huu| hbq| rum| haz| srq| cmf| bsu| rnh|