Harambe, the silverback western lowland gorilla, was born on May 27, 1999, at the Gladys Porter Zoo. The White House wished the online sensation a happy birthday of what could have been its 27 th birthday.
Western lowland gorillas are classified as critically endangered, and at the time of Harambe's death, only around 100,000 remained in the wild. The species generally lives between 30 and 40 years in natural habitats, while gorillas in captivity can survive for more than 50 years.
Who was Harambe?
Harambe was a silverback western lowland gorilla was born at the Gladys Porter Zoo. After his birth, the zoo organised a public naming contest, which was won by Dan Van Coppenolle. He chose the name "Harambe," inspired by the Swahili word harambee, meaning "pull together," after hearing a song with the same title by Jamaican singer Rita Marley, the wife of reggae legend Bob Marley.
How did Harambe die?
Harambe was shot and killed by zoo officials at the Cincinnati Zoo on May 28, 2016, after a three-year-old boy climbed a barrier and fell 15 feet into the gorilla enclosure's moat.
Fearing for the child's life as the 400-pound gorilla grabbed and violently dragged the boy, the zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team decided to use lethal force rather than a tranquillizer. Tranquilizers take several minutes to take effect and could have agitated the animal, increasing the risk to the child. The boy was rescued and sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The incident sparked intense global debate regarding zoo safety standards, animal welfare, and parental responsibility. Following the tragedy, the Cincinnati Zoo improved the exhibit's barrier to prevent similar breaches. Harambe's death also gained massive cultural traction, transforming him into an enduring internet meme.
Harambe: The Internet Sensation
Initially, the death of Harambe had filled a wave of sympathy for the gorilla. Many early posts genuinely mourned the loss of the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla. They focused on the unfairness of an animal being killed for natural behavior while trapped in captivity. The meme evolved to place Harambe in heaven alongside other cultural icons, or in absurd political scenarios, making him a symbol of the unpredictable 2016 internet era.
However, after some time, the meme took an absurd turn and was used for racism and mocking posts. Internet users flooded Cincinnati Zoo's official channels with relentless jokes, forcing the venue to briefly deactivate its social media accounts. Fake petitions demanded his face be put on the dollar bill or transformed into a Pokémon character.
A popular conspiracy meme asserts that Harambe's death split humanity into a darker, chaotic alternate timeline, acting as the catalyst for all weird global events since 2016.
Cultural analysts view the Harambe meme as a meta-commentary on how social media processes grief and manufactured outrage. By exaggerating the mourning to a ridiculous degree, the internet satirised its own tendency to overreact to news cycles. With the tribute post by the White House, a new wave of Harambe trend may begin again.