ESSAY : A CRADLE OF LOVE A GORILLA'S HEROIC ACT IN GUARDING A YOUNG BOY IS A REMINDER THAT THE PROTECTIVE MOTHER INSTINCT IS NOT SOLELY A HOMO SAPIENS ATTRIBUTE.

Byline: Janet Bernson

ANYONE watching the news last week caught a glimpse of a 3-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla pit at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo.

As if on cue, 8-year-old Binti Jua - a mighty female Western Lowland gorilla - went to retrieve the boy and cradle him in her arms until human help could reach them. The cameras caught the rescue and the commentators spoke with amazement how this primitive beast protected the boy in his hour of trauma.

Later, we discovered that Binti Jua was raised with love and dignity by caring human ``parents,'' after she had been rejected by her own gorilla mother. Binti's ``parents'' wanted to be sure that she would grow up with a healthy attitude toward motherhood.

How strange that we find this event so surprising. I don't mean that it is commonplace for humans to mingle with zoo animals (though I must admit to having met some beastly people in my life), it is just that we humans seem to regard the protective mother instinct as solely a Homo sapiens attribute. Maybe, too, we have become too accustomed to viewing violence in our lives.

This particular story also must serve notice to all who doubt the importance of rearing a child with the heart rather than the back of a hand.

The mere fact that Binti was nurtured well by humans demonstrates the efficacy of such upbringing, and it also verifies the theory that if abused children grow to abuse their own children (and possibly others), then it stands to reason that nurtured children will grow to nurture their own and others as well.

That the nurtured ``child'' was a gorilla is really no big deal. One would hope the event might give inspiration to those humans who are contemplating parenthood or are in the midst of wondering what to do with their young offspring.

Consider also that this story of humans wishing to touch zoo animals is by for not an uncommon one. Just remember several months ago when 28-year-old Matthew Settles heard the Manchurian Brown bears at the San Diego Zoo ``inviting'' him in for lunch.

Little did he think he was the one they wanted to eat for lunch. Granted he must have gotten the wrong message. Nevertheless, the soft furry creatures do pose an inviting fantasy to us all, even though few of us need to make it real.

I'm sure the boy in Chicago thought that these gorillas were just like those he'd seen in Disney cartoons, expecting they would immediately crack jokes and break into song. Too young to consider the 18-foot plunge into the pit was probably more dangerous that the pit itself, he bonked his head and fell into never-never land.

Humanized and brutalized by the media, we have watched gorillas scale the Empire State Building, holding terrified blondes in flimsy clothing; chimpanzees rocket into space, and apes colonize planets where humans are the inferior.

Charles Darwin told us in the 1870s, in his ``The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,'' that ``evolution is a continuum and emotions like love and suffering, devotion and anxiety are not exclusive to humans.'' If Darwin were alive today, he'd probably be shaking his finger with an ``I told you so'' look on his face.

But, I digress. We have much to learn about healthy, positive behavior from this event, and it is not strange but amusing that we have learned it from a gorilla named Binti. I wonder what would have happened if she had gone on to medical school. They might not have needed to call in the humans to save the boy.

MEMO: Janet Bernson is a free-lance writer who lives in Sherman Oaks.

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Photo: (Color) Video view: Binti Jua cradles a 3-year-old b oy who fell into the gorilla pit at a Chicago zoo.

Associated Press