Gorillas

Two days, 6+ hours of online researching and much thinking later, I have come to a conclusion on my looming research project which needs to be researched over here in Germany:

I have decided to conduct research on captive Lowland Gorrillas, either comparing their captive behavior to that of wild populations OR comparing the behavior of different (completely separate) groups of captive gorillas.

Now you may be asking a few questions. First - how the did I go from Elephants to Gorillas? Easy, because there have been a few groups of animals that I am most interested in: Primates, Elephants, and Reptiles (primarily snakes). Also, because though Elephants are awesome, and I would love to work with them or do research on them someday, right now it is a little unrealistic. In order to research elephants in a zoo here, I'd have to travel - at least to Neunkirchen (which would be free but a little bit of a ride) everyday for observations - while there is a small Gorilla group right here in the Saarbruecken Zoo. I've been to the zoo, and I've seen their enclosure. I know it would be an ideal location for me to spend at least a few hours doing observations, where there wouldn't be too many visitors obstructing the view, and that the Gorilla's are easily distinguishable from one another (as there are only three). Also, because I can hop on a bus (or even walk) and be at the zoo within 30 minutes from home, it is very convienant, and cheap.

So, this is my preliminary idea. I'm excited, it's just a matter of working out the details, getting my advisor's opinion on the topic, and finding out information from the Zoo, to see if they would let me do it (and hopefully help me by giving me information/interviews/etc). If they say No, then I will have to find something else - and will more than likely then be doing research on Elephants at the Neunkirchen Zoo - at least that is my backup plan for now.

My Goal:
Have topic chosen by the end of this week.
Have details worked out by next week, along with starting to contact the zoo to find out their
requirements.
Start conducting research by June 1.

bah, this is going to be loads of work. :) but I wouldn't mind sitting around observing Apes for a while. it'd be fun.