Losing Harry was ‘like nothing I’ve ever felt’
Keeper admits gorilla’s death devastated zoo
DUBLIN Zoo keepers have told of their anquish over the death of the famous gorilla Harry.
The gentle giant had been one of the attraction’s most popular characters for more than 20 years, joining the pack when he was just seven. He passed away unexpectedly of a stroke last May and his final moments were shown on RTE’S The Zoo on Sunday night. Keeper Aisling admitted his death was “like nothing I’ve ever felt in my life”. She said: “I’ve never felt this type of loss. You work, you spend eight to 10 hours a day with these animals and it’s hard for people who don’t work with animals to understand the impact they have on your life.” Aisling spoke about how she sat with Harry and held his hand, telling him, ‘If you want to go just go and we’ll be all right’ and that she’d look after his family. She added: “And that was the last moment I had with him. And then he literally took a few deep breaths and he went and that was it. “He was just that kind of animal – completely irreplaceable. No matter who they bring in now it’ll never be him and the whole zoo is feeling that way today.” Another keeper said: “I’ve had tough days in here but yeah that was the worst I’ve ever had to deal with.” However, it wasn’t all sadness as Harry’s love interest Lena was expecting their seventh son just a couple of months after his passing. And on July 16 last year Lena gave birth with the new arrival causing a huge buzz around the zoo. Western lowland gorillas are rated as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List of Threatened Species so the baby was good news for the European breeding programme.