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Sanctuary:
Location |
Site Plan |
Phase 1: Koko's Family |
Communication Pagodas
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The Gorilla Sanctuary will be located in the hills of West Maui, on a 70-acre site provided by the Maui Land and Pineapple Company (MLP). We owe special thanks to MLP's Director Emeritus, Mary Cameron Sanford, in memory of whose son, Allan G. Sanford, the Sanctuary is being named. The tropical environment—vegetation and climate—of this site is much like the native habitat of gorillas in central Africa.
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Sanctuary:
Location |
Site Plan |
Phase 1: Koko's Family |
Communication Pagodas
|
The 70-acre site will be developed in 3 phases. Phases 1 and 2 (collectively) consist of two large and transparently enclosed outdoor "habitats," connected to gorilla houses (optional retreats), a large interspecies communication research and gorilla-care building, two staff houses, and a quarantine (for adaptation of incoming gorillas). Completion of Phase 1 will enable the Gorilla Foundation to move Koko and Ndume to the Sanctuary, with room for their family to expand. Phase 2 provides room for additional gorillas and a central interspecies communication research building. Phase 3 will involve expansion of gorilla habitats as needed,
and according to land availabilty and funding constraints.
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Sanctuary:
Location |
Site Plan |
Phase 1: Koko's Family |
Communication Pagodas
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Phase 1 of the MAP Sanctuary will provide a new, more natural habitat
for Koko, Ndume and future family members.
It consists of the following key design elements:
- A 1/2-acre outdoor enclosed habitat (4 times the size of
their facility in California)
- Two small gorilla buildings (retreats), each
capable of sleeping 3 adult gorillas (and their children),
with direct access to the outdoor habitat
- A staff building to manage gorilla care and interspecies communication
research on-site.
- A 1/8-acre quarantine enclosure and gorilla house,
to process new arrivals or provide special health care
- A transparent semi-hexagonal communication pagoda, located on
the perimeter of the outdoor enclosure, to facilitate
interspecies communication research (researchers on the inside)
and provide video feed to the Visitor Center
Note that Phase 2 will add a larger (1-acre) outdoor enclosed habitat,
a 12,000 sq ft Interspecies Communicationn Research and Care Building connecting
the two enclosures, and will enable the Gorilla Foundation to
accommodate multiple gorilla families.
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Sanctuary:
Location |
Site Plan |
Phase 1: Koko's Family |
Communication Pagodas
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The Interspecies Communication Pagodas are a unique feature of the MAP Sanctuary.
Located in a key vantage point within each of the large outdoor enclosures,
the Communication Pagoda is a composite-glass enclosed, 24-foot-wide, hexagonal booth
that will enable researchers (on the inside) to communicate with gorillas (on the outside),
without visual obstruction. It also provides an ideal location to mount a panoramic-swivel
video camera that can broadcast a researcher's eye view of interespecies communication.
This unique video feed can be broadcast both real-time to the interactive Visitor Education Center (in large-screen,
high-definition format) and to the Internet (for a lower-resolution view by a wider audience).
Thus, the Communication Pagodas serve two purposes: i) to facilitate interspecies communication
(sign language) research in a natural setting, and ii) to expedite the dissemination of this research to the public so that it can play a more active role in conservation.
Importantly, both functions are non-invasive—they permit the gorillas to live without the stress
of human strangers in close proximity. Other video cameras will be distributed throughout the Sanctuary
to provide alternate privacy-respecting views of gorilla family life
One of the benefits of interspecies communication is that it permits the other species to
"tell" us how they're doing and what they want, and hence optimizes our efforts to help them.
To learn how the gorillas contributed to the design requirements for their own new home
via American Sign Language see Gorilla Centric Sanctuary Design.
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