Award winning author, Katherine Applegate, tells the story of Ivan, a western lowland gorilla. Ivan lived alone in a shopping mall’s concrete enclosure for twenty-seven years. Her book, Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla is beautifully written and illustrated.

Ivan was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (known then as the Belgian Congo) in 1962. Poachers captured Ivan when he was about six months old. He and a young female gorilla were  sent to the U.S. in 1964. At first, Ivan and the female gorilla, named Burma, lived with a family in Tacoma, Washington. Soon, Burma died of pneumonia.

When Ivan grew too large to handle, he was moved to the shopping mall. He lived in an enclosure at the B&I Circus Store near a few other wild animals. Ivan, the only gorilla, became B&I’s most popular attraction.

Ivan could not interact with other gorillas. He did not have a natural habitat to live and play in. Ivan only had a tire swing, a TV, and a window to watch the visitors staring back at him. Ivan lived this way for twenty-seven years. Until…

…a National Geographic documentary titled The Urban Gorilla showed how Ivan lived. That’s when a change began. People stood up. They protested the conditions that Ivan lived in. They talked to the media. They wrote letters to government officials. And it worked — along with the bankruptcy of the B&I Circus Store.

Finally, Ivan had his freedom. He was moved to Zoo Atlanta in 1994, to a natural habitat with other gorillas. For the first time since he was moved to B&I, Ivan experienced the outdoors. It took him awhile to adjust to his new life. But when he did, Ivan loved to play with the female and younger gorillas there.

Ivan lived at Zoo Atlanta for eighteen years. He died in 2012, at  fifty years old, a long life for a gorilla.

Statue in Tacoma, Washington

Images of Ivan, Courtesy of Wiki Commons

If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author

You may like: Jane Goodall https://barbaralowell.com/jane-goodall

Visit: http://www.zooatlanta.org/ivan to learn more about Ivan.

Read the 1993 New York Times article about Ivan at: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/17/us/a-gorilla-sulks-in-a-mall-as-his-future-is-debated.html

Watch Ivan at the B&I Circus Store in the first video and at Zoo Atlanta in the second.

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