Ivan the western lowland gorilla was rescued from poachers in Africa and raised by humans in Tacoma, Washington.
He spent 27 years “in solitary confinement, in a cage in a circus-themed shopping mall,” until public outrage facilitated his release.
That was 1994, when Ivan came to live at Zoo Atlanta. Although 35 is considered “old age” for a gorilla, Ivan lived to be 50. He died in 2012.
That same year, Katherine Applegate’s children’s book, “The One and Only Ivan,” described Ivan as strong, sensitive and patient. It is, of course, fiction, but it mirrors the life of the real Ivan.
“I do think it’s great to imagine what’s going on behind those piercing eyes,” Applegate told the AJC’s Bo Emerson in 2013, after the book won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the highest honor in children’s literature.
In the “The One and Only Ivan,” with a central character as captivating as the arachnid heroine in “Charlotte’s Web.” Ivan is dignified and patient, and he has the soul of an artist, Emerson wrote. He is drawn into action when he makes himself responsible for the welfare of another resident of the “Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade,” a baby elephant named Ruby.
Disney’s movie is based on Applegate’s book, but includes scenes of the real Ivan when he first arrived at the zoo and during his life in Atlanta.
Though he never truly integrated with the Zoo Atlanta gorilla population, Emerson wrote, Ivan had a chance to make friends and to live in a natural habitat.
“It wasn’t a perfect ending, but it was so much better than it might have been,” Applegate said. “Zoo Atlanta is an amazing zoo, and he could not have ended up in a better place. That was a great thing.”
“Patient is a useful way to be when you’re an ape,” Ivan says. “Gorillas are as patient as stones. Humans not so much.”
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