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Title: Harambe II: The Uplift Experiment Gone Wrong
Source: National Geographic Exclusive, March 2068
Author: Maria St. Claire, Senior Correspondent
Over eight years ago, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden funded and enabled a misguided and unregulated experiment to uplift a juvenile silverback gorilla, which they named Harambe II. This attempt to revitalize flagging attendance at the zoo did indeed garner worldwide attention. The experiment was one of the first of its kind, attempting to give animals human-like intelligence amplification.
Despite the deeper ethical questions regarding animal uplift rights and social integration, the zoo rushed to implement the plan without a full understanding of the potential consequences. The uplift procedure was still immature at the time without knowledge we have today of its inherent dangers. Harambe had always been bright, mastering human sign language at a very young age with a vocabulary of over 150 words.
Only a month after the procedure concluded, the zoo had a worldwide live broadcast announcing their success and introducing Harambe to the public. On live TV, Harambe II killed the Cincinnati Zoo Director in a show of counter-dominance. Harambe had his animalistic tendencies amplified along with intelligence making him extremely canny and aggressive. In the ensuing chaos, four more people were killed as Harambe fled the zoo. Police review of public cams showed Harambe’s bloody trail out of the city. He had managed to escape by jumping into the Ohio tributary and swam miles downriver. Harambe’s trackers revealed that he had hidden in the Shawnee State Park, before disappearing.
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This reporter has pieced together evidence and testimony that with human assistance he traveled to the Algonquin Provincial Parks north of Toronto. It is believed that Harambe spent years hiding in seclusion, garnering many different reactions from humans, from sympathy to fear. The extent of his intelligence and aggressiveness remained largely unquantified, and rumors of his travels and encounters with humans spread like wildfire. For years, the hunt for Harambe failed to find him. Sighting lagged until his story faded from the news completely.
It has now been discovered that years later, a bioscientist named Robert Gutierrez had successfully tracked and found Harambe in the Algonquin parklands. It is unknown what Dr. Gutierrez’s plans were for Harambe. His corpse’s augmentation memory stores had detailed plans regarding Harambe’s uplift virus and a custom body augmentation for the gorilla. Forensic evidence at the scene shows that the pair stayed together in an abandoned shelter in the parkland for months before Harambe fled once again, leaving the doctor’s body exposed to the elements for about a year. Harambe may still be out there, but he clearly does not want to be found.
This cautionary tale of Harambe II serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of unregulated animal uplift and the potential consequences of rushing such experiments. The story of Harambe II will undoubtedly continue to spark debates on the ethics of animal uplift and the role of humans in their evolutionary progression.
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