Addicted to smartphones

Zoos across North America have begun to grapple with animals’ smartphone obsession in recent years, with more and more visitors showing them pictures and videos on screens through glass walls. In Toronto, for example, zookeepers began posting signs last year urging visitors not to show their smartphones to gorillas in general. They become so fascinated that they start changing their behavior.because they tend to spend more and more time behind the screen.

For the welfare of the gorilla unit, please avoid showing them any videos or photos as some content may upset them and affect their relationships and behavior within the family.
– such a sign warns.

At the San Diego Zoo, WSJ reporters watched firsthand as excited visitors flashed their phone screens at gorillas, even though zookeepers told them not to.

Journalists write this Some people come to the San Diego Zoo almost every daynot only films the animals but also shows them videos. The newspaper was even able to speak to two such visitors, but they declined to give their names for fear that they would not be allowed back into the zoo or the gorilla enclosures if they were found out.

This is my happy place
said a man wearing a gorilla shirt, talking to one of the animals and showing him his smartphone through the glass.

Another interviewee burst into tears when she learned she might lose access to the gorilla enclosure, insisting that “any enrichment is good enrichment.”

Beth Armstrong, a conservationist who helped start the gorilla conservation program at the Columbus Zoo in the 1980s, says people should put their phones down: “I understand that people want that kind of connection. But the reality is: the gorilla?”