This poor gorilla was clearly frightened and confused, but he was brave enough to pelt his would-be arresters with potatoes! We wonder if the marvellous Guy (late of London Zoo) would have done the same in that situation?
“According to the Paris letter of the Daily Telegraph a gorilla has been arrested in Paris. The animal appeared to be doing sentry duty in front of one particular house. He strode solemnly backwards and forwards, walking erect, and turning sharply when at the end of his beat. When a attempt was made to secure him he suddently lost his temper, tried to bite the bystanders, then pelted them with potatoes, which he seized from a neighbouring greengrocer’s shop. Two policemen came upon the scene, and inquired in the house for the owner of the gorilla, but no one claimed the animal. The representatives of authority then solemnly marched the anthropod, who walked erect between them like a man, off to the police-station, where they reported that they had found a prisoner causing an obstruction in a public thoroughfare. The constables, impressed by the half-human appearance of the animal had serious doubts whether he ought not to be duly charged with the offence; but the officer, overruling their objections, had the gorilla conveyed to the pound.”
The Stamford Post, 14th March, 1902.