What incident brought attention to the safety of people and zoo animals and also resulted in a gorilla being nominated for Speaker of the House?
Killing of Harambe On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and was grabbed and dragged by Harambe, a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla. Fearing for the boy's life, a zoo worker shot and killed Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to kill Harambe. A number of primatologists and conservationists wrote later that the zoo had no other choice under the circumstances, and that it highlighted the danger of zoo animals in close proximity to humans and the need for better standards of care.
Ntokou-Pikounda National Park Ntokou-Pikounda National Park is a 4572 km2 protected area in the Congo Basin of the Republic of the Congo. The park is known as the "Green Abyss" from J. Michael Fay's MegaTransect. The park was created primarily to protect an estimated population of 15,000 lowland gorillas on 28 December 2012 when the Congolese Ministerial Council and President Denis Sassou Nguesso adopted the Decree Establishing the Ntokou-Pikounda National Park. The park also has an estimated 8,000 forest elephants and 950 chimpanzees. The towns and villages surrounding the park have a combined population of 25,000-30,000 people, and few service exist for tourists.