The incident was sensationally anthropomorphized in the media as a domestic dispute between Lulu and Kongo, but in reality experts thought it was a simple accident.

Intense media coverage and public interest brought Pattycake to the attention of a wide audience, with stories focusing on her recovery, her eventual reunion with her parents, and the conditions of zoo animals in Central Park.

[3] At a time when New York City was facing many problems, she distracted the public from their growing anxieties and became a welcome relief for New Yorkers and their children who loved to visit her.

Pattycake spent her later life as an independent but caring troop matriarch in the Bronx Zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit.

[4] "Pattycake" was born on September 3, 1972, to western lowland gorilla parents Lulu and Kongo at the Central Park Zoo.

[8] "Patty Cake", the winning entry, was submitted by New York fireman John O'Connor, who named the gorilla after his wife and a proposed daughter.

[9] Pattycake's birth caught the attention of the city and brought crowds of thousands of New Yorkers to the Central Park Zoo.

Reporter N. R. Kleinfield called her a child star whose "furry face served as a bit of a respite at a time when the city found itself grappling with high crime rates and an intensifying financial crisis.

"[4] Six months after Pattycake was born, the director of the zoo estimated that based on the crowds, she might draw an additional 500,000 visitors by the time of her first birthday.

Zookeeper Veronica Nelson, who worked with Patty Cake, recalled that The news media would have liked to have it a dramatic bloody mess—a struggle between mom and pop for the custody of the child.

Due to concerns that Lulu would try to remove Pattycake's cast, she was separated from her mother and moved to the Bronx Zoo for convalescence.

Time magazine noted that it was the "custody battle of the decade" in the "primate world", comparing Patty Cake's popularity and fame to that of child star Shirley Temple.

[14] Developmental biologist Ronald Nadler of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center was brought in to arbitrate the dispute and published a report that favored returning Pattycake to her mother and the Central Park Zoo.

[6]: 198 [17] The entire incident was documented by artist Susan Green in her book Gentle Gorilla: The Story of Patty Cake (1978).

[24][25] The general curator of the Bronx Zoo, James Doherty, described Pattycake as "independent" with "few close friends" in the Congo Gorilla Forest.

This forced separation led to protests from animal rights activists who expressed concerns about the potential consequences of emotional trauma on the two gorillas.

[39] Pattycake tried her hand at painting while participating with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) animal enrichment program at the Bronx Zoo.

[43] A picture book called Patty Cake (1974), featuring New York Times photographer Neal Boenzi and others, was written by Elizabeth Moody.

[45] Artist Susan Green published her direct, personal observations about the custody dispute (along with her drawings) in the book Gentle Gorilla: The Story of Patty Cake (1978).