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Putting gorillas behind steel and glass might seem harsh, but these barriers help keep them safe. Tim/Zoo Atlanta Flickr/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The death of Harambe, a 17-year-old silverback Western lowland gorilla shot dead by Cincinnati Zoo staff after a four-year-old boy fell into his enclosure, has sparked anger and controversy.

One lesson we can take from this sad episode is the need to be realistic about the conditions in which gorillas and other captive animals live. If we accept that gorillas are going to be kept in zoos, we need to make sure those zoos don’t fail these animals by letting situations like this arise.

Harambe and the young boy.

Gorillas are obviously potentially dangerous to humans. We are a danger to them too, not least because our genetic closeness makes gorillas vulnerable to many human diseases.

As unpalatable as it seems to zoo visitors who might want to see animals living as “naturally” as possible, gorillas need to be kept behind glass, steel mesh or wide divides – for their own safety as well as ours.

Safety-first zoo design

One of the biggest questions about the Cincinnati Zoo incident is how the young boy could so easily have fallen into Harambe’s enclosure and come into direct contact with him. In light of this, there are certain principles that can be followed for the safe design of enclosures for large animals.

If an outdoor enclosure has some type of moat for containment, it may be a deep concrete moat with shallow water (less than 50cm) for gorillas to use without risk of drowning (gorillas can’t swim).

According to one set of recommendations, the typical minimum barrier should be 3.65 m high and 3.65 m across, but there is no law concerning minimum standards for gorilla enclosures. For extra security, a second barrier, sometimes electrified, is needed to keep people away.

In terms of minimum standards, the Cincinnati Zoo enclosure is suitable. But for great apes such as gorillas, it should no longer be acceptable simply to meet minimum standards. This is as true for containment as it is for the animals' other needs: space, complexity, and behavioural and psychological stimulation. The cost of building optimal enclosures for gorillas runs into millions of dollars, which places constraints on zoos who rarely have the funds to upgrade or redevelop enclosures. Who should fund these improvements?

All zoos have regulations and procedures to follow for risk management, including animal escape and recapture. Additional precautions are taken for all incidents or interactions with those considered dangerous species (such as big cats, great apes, elephants and so on).

There are strict legal requirements for protecting the public. But because of the rarity of such events, zoo staff may be inexperienced with situations involving human intruders (accidental or otherwise) in an exhibit.

Are gorillas ‘gentle giants’?

In 1996, a three-year-old boy fell into a similar enclosure at Brookfield Zoo. While the zoo visitors were also screaming and yelling, an eight-year-old female gorilla, Binti Jua, “rescued” the boy by carrying him to zoo staff at a side entrance. As animal researcher Marc Bekoff points out, Binti Jua was hailed as a gentle “heroine”, whereas Harambe was treated as a threat, but in both cases the gorillas were in situations where they had no control over the outcome.

It is impossible to say for certain whether Harambe would have become aggressive. He appeared to show behavioural signs of stress – hardly surprising given that people were shouting and screaming at him. Gorillas are sensitive and respond to non-verbal behaviour, such as towering over them or staring at them, which can be seen as a threat.

When faced with a stressful, noisy and threatening situation, gorillas – like most other animals, humans included – have a physiological “fight or flight” response. It is hard to predict how any individual will react under stress, but based on the video footage, Harambe did not appear to be behaving aggressively.

Silverbacks are powerful animals, weighing up to 180kg. When they are living in stable groups and not facing a threat, they are indeed gentle, but adult silverbacks can engage in infanticide when taking over a new family group.

A 2005 study found that the behaviour and welfare of gorillas in zoos are influenced by the number of people nearby, how close they are, and how much noise they are making. While zoo visitors can behave in almost any way they want, in the wild there are strict guidelines for tourists visiting gorillas.

To avoid disease transmission, behavioural disturbance and stress for wild gorillas, tourists who visit their native habitats must be over the age of 16, and in groups of no more than eight. The guidelines allow them to spend one hour quietly watching from a distance of about 10m.

Gorillas may be “gentle giants” when treated with respect and awe, but they are so much stronger than us.

Wild gorillas: look, but don’t touch. Augustine Tours/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Expectations vs reality

When gorillas are housed in zoos, their exhibits must be designed from three perspectives: the safety and wellbeing of gorillas in the enclosure; the safety and satisfaction of visitors; and the safety and ease of maintenance by keepers and other staff.

These aims aren’t always mutually compatible. Zoo visitors might expect gorillas to be visible, active and “entertaining”, whereas the gorillas themselves are likely to seek quiet, secluded areas, and to spend much of their day resting or foraging.

Zoos and wild gorilla tourism sites must manage their visitors' expectations, so that all visitors understand that animal welfare and comfort take priority over optimal viewing.

We also can’t pretend that gorillas have control over their lives in captivity or even in natural habitats. They are impacted by human activities in all the places they live. Conservation is far more complicated than merely ensuring that gorillas have somewhere to live.

Zoo-based management programs have to deal with issues such as providing long-term care for old gorillas, who can reach 50 years of age. Captive breeding programs also have to deal with a “surplus” of males, because only a subset of silverbacks form family units or harems, which feature multiple females. In the wild there are many different group formations, including those with multiple silverbacks, but in captivity it is harder to manage social groups, as there is rarely space to separate individuals when aggression occurs.

Meanwhile, sanctuaries in Africa are struggling to care for orphaned gorillas as a result of the bushmeat trade. There is no truly safe wild haven for gorillas. Populations of critically endangered Western Lowland gorillas are declining, mainly as a result of the Ebola virus, which has killed thousands of gorillas in the Congo Basin, as well as commercial hunting and human disease.

Do gorillas belong in zoos? Why do zoo visitors want to see large animals in urban zoos? Are gorillas safer in the wild than inside enclosures and, if so, where? These are questions on which there will inevitably be strong differences of opinion.

But one thing we should all agree on is that we must strive to be compassionate and foster peaceful co-existence between people and other species, and work towards creating safe environments for gorillas with minimal human impact.

We can’t pretend that a moated enclosure without bars is any less of a cage than one with mesh. If keeping them safe in a zoo means putting a bigger barrier between us and them, or only letting us view them via hidden cameras as they live in a more protected and secluded exhibit, then so be it.

Carla Litchfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Water found deep in the Moon was delivered when icy asteroids splashed into magma oceans 4.3 billion years ago, a study suggests.

Orcas exist in every ocean, adapting to different conditions and diets. Genome sequencing has allowed insights into their evolution - and similarity to humans

Geneticists have deciphered the brief history of the killer whale: the predator that exists in every ocean but has evolved over the generations to hunt in disciplined packs, and specialise in a range of diets.

The lesson is that genetic mutations that may have favoured survival in changing circumstances were then enhanced by natural selection – and by social learning within killer whale family groups.

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Cars and houses are buried in rubble after extreme floods hit parts of south-west Germany. Streets in Braunsbach were strewn with debris after two streams burst their banks. Four people have died, including a firefighter. Much of Germany and Europe experienced heavy rain and thunder storms over the weekend

• Four dead after severe floods hit southern Germany

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The EU referendum has united an often fractious industry, with skippers in ports from northern Scotland to Cornwall desperate to dump imposed quotas

William Whyte has a new flag flying from the rigging of his vast blue-hulled trawler, its fabric snapping in the brisk breeze coming in off the North Sea. It features the cartoon of a militant-looking fish wearing armour, a union jack shield at its waist and the legend “Fishing for Leave”.

These flags are appearing on boats around Britain’s coast. The country’s trawlermen are placing themselves in the vanguard of the campaign to quit the EU. There is talk of a flotilla massing on the Thames, as the country’s fishing fleets press the case for Brexit.

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Scientists in California are testing a spongy material made with the key ingredient of baking soda as means of capturing carbon emissions.

Nemo is actually a 'false clownfish'. Motoya Kawasaki/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Anemonefish, or clownfish, were made famous by the 2003 Disney-Pixar film Finding Nemo, and are about to play a starring role in the sequel, Finding Dory. They are well known for their special relationship with anemones, which provide a safe place to call home.

But anemonefish face a number of threats. Some researchers have warned of an increase in the wild-caught anemonefish trade, as happened following Finding Nemo.

Anemones, on which anemonefish depend, are threatened by warming seas in a similar way to corals. In fact anemones were affected by the recent coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, which recent updates show has left a third of coral colonies dead or dying in the north and central parts of the reef.

So will Nemo be left homeless?

A healthy (left) and bleached (right) bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) on the Great Barrier Reef. Ashley Frisch Nemo and his 27 cousins

There are 28 species of anemonefish. Although some people call this group “clownfish”, technically this name is only used for one species, Amphiprion percula. “Nemo” (A. ocellaris) looks similar, but is actually known as the “false clownfish”.

Anemonefish are famous for their special relationship with anemones. Although they can survive in aquariums without anemones, in nature they rely on anemones for protection from predators.

The pink anemonefish (Amphiprion perideraion) in a bleached anemone (Heteractis magnifica) at Christmas Island. JP Hobbs.

In return for providing a safe home, the resident anemonefish will provide nutrients and defend the anemone from predators such as butterflyfish. Both the number and size of anemonefish is linked to the size and number of anemones – and vice versa. Therefore, any decrease in one partner affects the other.

The collection of anemones and anemonefish for the aquarium trade has to be managed properly to ensure the future of anemonefishes. Anemonefish can be easily bred in captivity and this provides a reliable source for aquarium enthusiasts without impacting wild populations.

Cinnamon anemonefish (Amphiprion melanopus) in a bleached anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) on the Great Barrier Reef. Ashley Frisch

Ten species of anemones are inhabited by anemonefish. The highest diversity of anemonefish occurs in Indonesia, where anemonefish species outnumber anemones. As a result, different species of anemonefish have learnt to share the same anemone.

In most other locations, anemonefish aggressively prevent other species from entering their anemone. Anemonefish species differ in the number of anemone species they associate with.

Clark’s anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii) in a bleached anemone (Cryptodendrum adhaesivum) at Christmas Island. JP Hobbs.

Clark’s anemonefish (A. clarkii) can live in all ten anemone species and is widely distributed throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In contrast, McCulloch’s anemonefish (A. mccullochi) inhabits only one species of anemone and occurs only on reefs around Lord Howe Island.

After hatching, anemonefish larvae use their keen sense of smell to find their preferred anemone species and avoid unhealthy (bleached) anemones.

Anemones in hot water

Anemones are closely related to corals and get their colour from microscopic algae (zooxanthellae) that live symbiotically within the tissue of the anemone. Like corals, anemones expel their algae and turn white when they become stressed.

This process – termed “bleaching” – is usually in response to periods of elevated seawater temperatures. All ten species of anemones are susceptible to bleaching, which can result in a decrease in the size and number of anemonefishes and reduced reproduction.

McCulloch’s anemonefish (Amphiprion mccullochi) in a bleached anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) at Lord Howe Island. Justin Gilligan.

If seawater temperatures remain high for too long, then bleached anemones will die. In 1998, a prolonged period of elevated water temperatures in Japan resulted in mass mortality of bleached anemones and local extinction of anemonefish.

In March 2016, the Great Barrier Reef experienced a severe bleaching event due to elevated water temperatures associated with a strong El Niño event. There was mass bleaching of both corals and anemones.

Marine biologist Jean-Paul Hobbs studying anemonefish (Amphiprion mccullochi) and their host anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) at Lord Howe Island. Justin Gilligan.

In April 2016, elevated water temperatures also caused mass bleaching of corals and anemones off north-west Australia, including Christmas Island. Bleached anemones have also recently been reported elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and in the Red Sea.

The future of the bleached anemones and their resident anemonefish will depend on how quickly the water temperature returns to normal. If the temperature decreases swiftly, bleached anemones can regain their colour (reabsorb zooxanthellae) and survive.

However, the frequency and intensity of bleaching events are predicted to increase as the climate changes. Consequently, there are serious concerns about the ability of anemones and anemonefish to cope with rising water temperatures.

Reducing global greenhouse gas emissions will limit subsequent bleaching events and help ensure the future of Nemo and its relatives.

Jean-Paul Hobbs currently receives funding from Curtin University and Christmas Island Divers Association. His past research on anemones and anemonefishes has been funded by James Cook University, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Lord Howe Island Marine Park, Parks Australia, WA Department of Fisheries, Wet n Dry Adventures Christmas Island and the Australian Government Department of the Environment.

Ashley J Frisch has received funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Tara national park, Serbia The extraordinary thing is not how comfortable local people are around bears but how they live in almost parallel worlds

Sitting in a forest hut for three hours watching a glade fill with shadows tests to the limits all that modern life has made of us, especially our capacities for patience, stillness, silence.

Not that I expected the objects of our vigil to reciprocate. On the contrary, brown bears in this park can be 250kg, so I was assuming that they might give warning of their approach: inadvertent rustling perhaps, or anxious alarm calls from nearby birds. Not a bit of it: what was so affecting was how the bears brought the stillness with them. On one occasion an animal walked right by us and while just 4 metres away we heard nothing.

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Wildlife authorities in Thailand are removing tigers from a controversial Buddhist temple after accusations of wildlife trafficking and animal abuse.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale criticises Labor and the Coalition for their commitments to new coalmines, accusing them of taking huge donations from the fossil fuel lobby and harming the future of renewables on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday. When asked about his plans for central Queensland, Di Natale says: ‘I tell you what we won’t be doing is opening up a new coalmine and killing the Great Barrier Reef.”

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After a nation-wide search by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Australia's best playground has been announced, and the winner is Nature Play in inner-city Melbourne's Royal Park.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Today's technology looks so slick and clean as it brings magic to your screen. But behind the scenes, our data comes at a cost, says Dr Karl.

Australia’s WWI sunken fleet poster was released to promote Australia’s WWI underwater cultural heritage.

In April - May 2015 Curtin University concluded a successful remote survey of the shipwrecks HMAS Sydney II and HSK Kormoran.

ANCIENT JOURNEY: Ancient charred grains of rice and mung beans excavated from Madagascar provide the first archaeological evidence that ancestors of people living on the East African island known as Malagasy came from South-East Asia, scientists say.

Ever since visiting a remote Indonesian village as a teenager, Justine Flynn nurtured the dream of improving the lives of millions of people. Today, she has raised more than $4 million for life-changing food, water, health and sanitation programs by selling innovative local products

It was a week after the terror attacks of 9/11, and 14-year-old Justine Flynn was about to get on a plane to a remote village in Indonesia to help out at a local children’s foundation.

The fact her mum and dad let her go, despite the climate of fear, became a life-changing moment which set her on her path as a social entrepreneur and for which she is forever grateful.

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Comedy comes in all shapes and sizes. From the clever to the quirky, there is something for everyone in this selection of 25 of our funniest films. Warm up your winter with a little humour from some of the masters of modern comedy

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Polling indicates 71% would be more likely to vote for a party that supported distributed small-scale solar and storage

Battery storage technology has the potential to reshape not just the energy and transport sectors but also the upcoming Australian federal election, according to a new report.

The Australia Institute report Securing Renewables: How Batteries Solve the Problem of Clean Electricity includes polling indicating that 71% of Australians would be more likely to vote for a party that supported distributed small-scale solar and storage.

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The director of Cincinnati zoo says he would do the same again after a gorilla, into whose enclosure a child fell, was shot dead.

The problems caused by mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef have continued to deepen, with the latest estimates based on results from our surveys showing that 35% of corals are now dead or dying along the northern and central sections of the reef north of Townsville.

We have been tracking this severe bleaching event for months, documenting the damage as abnormally high water temperatures caused the coral to bleach, losing the algae that live within their tissues and supply most of the corals' energy.

Although corals can recover from bleaching when water temperatures drop, they can also die if they are without their algae for too long. From our surveys, we estimate this has now happened to one-third of the corals on reefs north of Townsville and to half of the corals on reefs that were hit hardest by the bleaching event.

The scale of the damage

For this latest survey, my colleagues and I carried out in-water surveys of corals on 84 reefs, spanning 1,300 km from Townsville to the Torres Strait, between mid-March and mid-April this year. We counted the number of coral colonies that were either recently dead, bleached completely white, partially bleached or healthy, as well as quantifying the percentage cover of hard corals and other organisms at each reef.

When you’re underwater, it’s easy to spot corals that have recently died due to bleaching because their white skeletons are coated in a thin film of greenish-brown algae. Over time, the algae grows to form a thick mat that obscures the skeleton – a hallmark of long-dead corals that are not victims of the recent bleaching. Our surveys did not include these colonies.

Corals that are bleached totally white, having lost nearly all of their symbiotic algae, have an extremely low chance of recovering because it takes several months for the algae to come back. In contrast, most corals that are only partially bleached will survive and recover quickly.

In the reef’s central section, between Cairns and Townsville, colonies tended to be partially bleached instead of completely white or dead. We estimate that fewer than 5% of colonies will die on many of these reefs.

But on the reef’s northernmost section, north of Cooktown, we estimate that more than half of the coral colonies on many reefs have died.

What do these figures really mean?

Corals are made up of tiny modules, called polyps, that are joined together to form colonies. Most of the polyps in each colony can reproduce, and this obviously means that larger colonies can produce more larvae.

Similarly, reefs with more different colonies living on them can produce more larvae overall, providing a supply of new corals that can disperse to nearby damaged reefs and kick-start their recovery.

In places where corals have died on just a few reefs among many other healthy reefs, the supply of larvae from the neighbouring healthy reefs can facilitate more rapid recovery.

But in places where coral deaths are spread across most of the reefs, such as the stretch north of Cooktown, the coral larvae needed to recolonise the reefs have to travel much longer distances and this slows down the recovery.

Recovery prospects

This shows why coral bleaching is particularly damaging to reefs: its effects can be apparent over a scale of thousands of kilometres. Other disturbances, like cyclones, can also kill lots of coral, but their effects are usually more localised, meaning that recovery is easier.

Based on previous bleaching events, it can take several decades before these reefs recover, and much longer before the oldest and largest colonies are able to re-establish themselves. Some areas of the reef that were severely bleached in 1998 still haven’t recovered. The fear is that the time between bleaching events is now shorter than the time needed for reefs to recover.

Ocean currents are crucial to reef recovery, because of the importance of dispersing coral larvae for repopulating damaged reefs. On the Great Barrier Reef, the East Australian Current helps to transport larvae from north to south. However, this current begins its southward path at around 18º South (just north of Townsville), meaning that this current will be little help (and will in fact be an active hindrance) to the recovery of the most severely bleached reefs beyond that.

Another factor that impedes recovery is that bleached corals have lower reproductive output after a bleaching event. This means that even colonies that don’t die this year will contribute fewer larvae in the coming years.

Fixing the damage?

Coral bleaching events happen mainly when ocean temperatures are abnormally warm. Consequently, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the main way we can help to prevent more global bleaching events from striking in the future.

Improving water quality and controlling outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish are also very important, because reducing coral loss due to these other factors can increase the resilience of the reef to bleaching.

Technological approaches, like shading reefs or artificially restocking reefs, might be considered for specific small reef sites, but they are not feasible for the conservation of the 2,300 km Great Barrier Reef, or for coral reefs on a global scale.

Mia Hoogenboom receives funding from Australian Research Council.