DIVERSIONS : Wild Dads : Around Griffith Park, Father’s Day, Like Most Other Days, Tends to Be a Real Zoo

He’s a hulking figure. No question, he’s the king of the castle he shares with his children and a band of paramours.

For fun, he’ll indulge his playful children and agree to sit in the middle for a game of ring around the rosey. Other times, the children--Kelly, 4, and Angel, 3--will climb on their dad’s back and the trio will wrestle.

“He’s just a great dad,” says Jennifer Chatfield, who’s known Chris for some time. “He’s very indulgent with his youngsters.”

That’s the surprising part.

No one ever thought that fatherhood would soothe the savage beast in Chris, a 475-pound male silver-back gorilla who lives at the Los Angeles Zoo.

But despite Chris’ and other animal dads’ efforts at being good parents, no Father’s Day cards or gifts will be exchanged among the zoo’s 2,000-plus family members. Instead, it will be just another day at the park for the myriad mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles that represent more than 500 different species.

Even so, “fatherhood” is alive and well at the zoo, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Griffith Park. Within the animal kingdom--where parenting duties for the most part are done by the moms--there exists a diverse array of family structures and lifestyles governed by some of the best and worst kinds of fathers.

Take the Greater Flamingo, for example.

Top candidate for father of the year, this male possesses paternal instincts some dads might say are for the birds. He takes turns sitting on the eggs with the mother flamingo throughout a 27- to 30-day incubation period.

Male flamingos share in the parenting duties, says Cathy Christel, the flamingos’ keeper. It’s not unusual for the males to feed the chicks, baby-sit and protect them from harm.

“Both the males and females make sure nobody pecks at (the chicks). They keep the other birds away or at a distance from the chicks. They’re very protective of their young,” says Christel.

Male chimpanzees are also excellent parents. Two of the zoo’s best are Judeo, the father of four, and Toto, a kindly male who, oddly enough, has never sired any young.

“Both of the males get along with the kids,” says Vicki Binganan, keeper for the chimps and other African primates. “They’ll play with the kids; you can hear them laughing. They’ll get down and tickle them and roll around. They play a lot, all of them.”

Binganan says Judeo will pick up the babies to protect them if he senses danger: “They hug if they’re frightened and they kiss. They really seem to protect the kids. Humans can take a lesson from chimp parenting.”

Another superdad is the golden lion tamarin. This primitive primate from South America will carry a number of babies on his back for the first six to seven weeks of their lives, turning them over to the mother for nursing every two to three hours.

Yet, for every attentive father in the zoo, there are others for whom fathering is nothing more than reproduction.

The role of the great gray kangaroo male is to breed and protect, says animal keeper Paul Jewel: “These animals have a passive, indifferent attitude; the mothers do all the care-taking for the young.”

With reptiles, neither males nor females are particularly nurturing. “There’s no such thing as a mother or father with most reptiles,” says Michael J. Crotty, zoo curator. “The vast majority of females drop their eggs in a nest and leave, never to return.”

In the elephant family, the males are also quick to forget their young. “They find the females that are in season, breed them and then leave. The elephants’ world is a world run by women,” says Crotty.

Many of the zoo’s carnivorous males are kept away from their young because they will kill and eat them. These males not only are dangerous to their offspring, but also to the mothers. Among the deadliest dads is the Indian rhinoceros, according to zoo experts.

“We have to separate the males and females. We only put them together for breeding,” says Crotty. He adds that the female often is isolated from the males for several months for the protection of mother and baby.

Rhino dads could learn a think or two about parenting from Chris, the gorilla zoo officials describe as an exemplary dad--although no one’s sure where he learned his daddy skills.

Fatherhood seems to have mellowed Chris, who arrived at the zoo in 1983 branded as an extremely aggressive “sociopath” with a bad attitude and a reputation to match.

“Chris was with a female gorilla in another zoo as a single pair (couple) and killed her,” says Crotty. No one knows why Chris attacked his mate. “It could have been a number of things.”

After Chris came to the L.A. Zoo, he was introduced to not one but three female gorillas. Now, he’s a changed primate. “We’ve successfully integrated him in with this group of three adult females,” says Crotty. “He couldn’t be nicer now. He plays with the babies.”

Chatfield agrees: “One day, I was walking by the exhibit. Kelly was about 3 months old and weighed less than 10 pounds, and Chris was in the front of the exhibit and he had something in his hand. He had the baby in the palm of his hand and was nuzzling him with his nose.”

The Los Angeles Zoo is at 5333 Zoo Drive in Griffith Park at the junction of the Ventura and Golden State freeways. The zoo is open daily, except Christmas, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (213) 666-4090.