The Gorilla & the Nurse

Knorke was 17 months old and a sick gorilla when Nurse Rosemarie Hohler first saw him. Bought by the West Berlin Zoo to replace Pongo, its prewar gorilla bayoneted to death by Russian soldiers, Knorke had been flown in from the French Cameroons, and had promptly fallen sick of paratyphoid fever. Zoo officials sent Knorke to the City Hospital, put the sad little ape in quarantine in a sealed-off room, and explained that paratyphoid, though usually only a mild human disorder, can be fatal to gorillas. Looking compassionately at Knorke, 24-year-old Rosemarie volunteered to go into quarantine with him.

The first time Nurse Hohler took Knorke in her arms, he bit her. But when night came, the baby ape acted as many human babies do. He cried whenever Rosemarie turned off the light. After that night, he whimpered like a human baby whenever she left him.

Gradually, under Rosemarie's motherly care, Knorke regained his strength. She fed him on human baby food, soft-boiled eggs and fruit, and she spanked him when he was naughty. He would look at her reproachfully after a spanking, but he generally behaved for a while, at least. He would pick up a rag or a paper towel and try to help Rosemarie when she was cleaning the room. His toilet manners became very good; he always went to the proper corner of the room. He did not try to talk in the human sense, but Rosemarie learned the noises that he made to express emotion. A guttural gurgle meant contentment, and a soft cough meant that he was going to get vicious. When he tried to bite, Rosemarie once knocked him clear across the room, but Knorke did not hold this against her.

As the months passed, a deep affection developed between the nurse and the baby gorilla. They would romp together uproariously. Knorke would race around the room, dive under Rosemarie's bed, scramble out the other side and leap into her arms. She found he was terribly ticklish over nearly all his body; even a slight tickling drove him into paroxysms of gorilla laughter, a rapid, staccato inhaling.

In three months Knorke had gained eleven lbs. and was strong enough to leave the City Hospital. When he was sent back to the zoo, Rosemarie went along to take care of him. She spends twelve hours a day with Knorke, including a two-hour nap with him on her own bed. She intends to stay with him for another year.

Rosemarie is tremendously fond of Knorke, but she does not quite think of him as a baby. "He is a young gorilla patient," she says simply. She is well aware that she cannot baby him indefinitely. In ten years or so he will stand six feet tall and weigh around 400 lbs. "I wonder," she speculates, "if I can play with him then."

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