Former gorilla caretaker visits Ivan in Atlanta

Posted 10:31PM on Monday 5th August 2002 ( 22 years ago )

TACOMA, WASHINGTON - It was the first reunion in more than seven years for Joyce Barr and Ivan the gorilla. She waved and hollered across a moat. Ivan stared, then started hooting and slapped his massive hand against a gate of his enclosure at Zoo Atlanta. ``He remembered me, no doubt about it,'' Barr told The News Tribune of Tacoma. ``This made me feel really good, because I could see that he's happy and he looks so good,'' she said of her visit. ``It's put my mind to rest.'' Barr helped care for Ivan when he lived at Tacoma's B&I Shopping Center. Prior to last weekend's visit, she hadn't seen him since shortly after his 1994 transfer to the Atlanta zoo. Ivan left the Northwest following a three-year ``Free Ivan'' campaign waged by animal welfare activists and primate experts who insisted a store was no place for an intelligent animal like a gorilla. Ivan's owners resisted the pressure to give him up. Barr and fellow caretaker Tonya Hill were caught in the middle. They were Ivan's daily caretakers for years, feeding him his favorite foods and coming up with games to keep him active and engaged. ``We were his family,'' Barr said. ``We just wanted what was best for him.'' Ivan spent 27 years displayed in a concrete compound at B&I. Hill and Barr made the trip to Atlanta with Ivan and spent several days with him at his new home. Keepers estimate his age at 40. Some captive gorillas have lived into their 50s. Bernie Gregory, the zoo's lead gorilla keeper, agreed that Ivan recognized Barr. ``It seemed to go well,'' he said. ``He looks great,'' Barr said. ``He's slimmed down. ``It just seems to me he's getting his wildness back,'' she added. Ivan lives with four female gorillas in the Atlanta zoo's lush habitat. He hasn't yet fathered any offspring but Barr said she hasn't given up hope.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/8/191680