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1 Captured in the jungles of Africa in 1961,
a three-year-old western lowland gorilla was on his way to the United
States. His days of playing among the trees in Cameroon were over.
Named after the then-mayor of Atlanta, William Berry Hartsfield, “Willie
B.” found himself in a new home: a twenty-five-by-forty-foot enclosure
of concrete and glass at the Grant Park Zoo in Atlanta, Georgia.
2 In the early days, Willie B.’s zookeepers went into his cage to wrestle
and play with him. Just as gorillas in the wild play with one another, the
keepers tickled and chased him. But when they left after each play session,
Willie B. tried to follow them out the door. As he grew older and stronger,
the gorilla nearly tore his playmates’ clothes off in an attempt to keep
them from leaving. Obviously, it was no longer safe for the keepers to be
inside the cage with the gorilla. From then on, the only thing Willie B. had
to play with was a rubber tire hanging by a chain in the middle of his cage.

And every night, when the keepers locked up the zoo, Willie B. was sent to
his night pen, all alone.
3 Soon Willie B. grew to be a potbellied, barrel-chested, full-grown
silverback gorilla. At six-feet-tall and weighing more than four hundred
pounds, Willie towered over most of his keepers. His massive head sat
upon his forty-inch-round neck. All day long visitors came to stare at the
huge gorilla—and, unlike gorillas in the wild, Willie B. stared right back.

The only thing Willie B. had
to play with was a rubber tire
hanging by a chain.

enclosure An enclosure is an area that
is surrounded by a fence or walls.

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