BBC Travel: The US' last wild frontier town? This sign that your Harambe … "Had I been there, I would have gone into the enclosure myself," says Frank Paris, one of the people who used the hashtag #RIPHarambe to express his sadness. Judging by what is sailing into my email inbox each minute and by worldwide media coverage, it already is. I didn't what Harambe to be killed, but i understand why they had to. It was a sad story that could have been even sadder. The rapidly growing international field called compassionate conservation comes into play here. That's how sure I am that the boy was fine and that Harambe had no intention of hurting anybody.". Indeed, a recent study conducted by zoos themselves, showed that what people learn is very limited in scope in terms of what the new knowledge means in any practical sense. His image was spread far and wide throughout the internet. "It just spiralled out of control and was immediately a giant social trend, because it involved an element of supposed animal cruelty. Harambe memes are what happens when memes don't get monetized and die. 12 hours ago — Lee Billings and Casey Dreier, 13 hours ago — Sandy Sufian and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson | Opinion, 14 hours ago — Jean Chemnick and E&E News. "People online kind of get off on being mad about things that they don't actually care about," says Brandon Wardell, a stand-up comedian and one of those who poked fun at the Harambe mourners. I also thought about the movie King Kong. "I didn't love that there were Nazis that were all of a sudden into a meme that I created.". The UN is analysing videos in which the daughter of Dubai's ruler says she fears for her life. For people who want to know more about what was going on in Harmabe’s head and heart, think about your companion dog, for example. Subscribers get more award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. "I feel like it was driven to the ground so quickly," Wardell recalls. "Memes will … And he was even memorialised in song. I like to ask people to use their companion animals to close the empathy gap because people get incredibly upset when a dog is harmed because they see dogs as sentient, feeling beings. It makes no sense why someone would make a stupid meme about a gorilla who got killed so a baby could be saved. So why are people laughing at Harambe? The events were captured on a YouTube video which has been watched millions of times. Amid the debate over who was at fault in the death of a beloved animal, we need to step back and ask a different question, Harambe, a 17-year-old male western lowland gorilla, was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo to save the life of a four-year-old child who fell into his cage. You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. I don't know why the phrase "Dicks Out" exists. Reply Retweet Favorite. The Harambe meme became the carrier not just for the unresolved emotions surrounding the death of a gorilla, but for a larger pool of emotions seeking resolution in the zeitgeist. Harmabe’s hold on the child and his sheltering of the youngster are indicators of protection. Indeed, one might argue that the animal people were seeing was not really a true western lowland gorilla, surely not an ambassador for his species. While some might argue that learning about Harambe is good for conserving his species, and while many of us know someone who went to a zoo and said they learned something new about a given species, there’s no hard evidence that these people then go on to do something for the good of the species. During the midst of this election with an orange egg head and a technology-challenged, pathological liar as our two potential candidates, this incident just so happened to "conveniently" occur. If you're seeing people freaking out about a dead gorilla, over say thousands of people dying in the Syrian refugee crisis, then what do you do with that anger? Cincinnati Zoo. An undated photo of the gorilla Harambe. Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society. However, that is precisely why Harambe was living in the Cincinnati Zoo. Over time there will be fewer and fewer captive animals and zoos as we know them can be phased out.