For some reason, it seems to be a common occurrence for children to fall into gorilla enclosures. I can see how these certain situations could happen, but with the number of times it has happened, I’m surprised gorilla enclosures haven’t been designed to be a little less accessible to visitors.
Inside Edition posted a story about different situations involving children falling into gorilla enclosures, and each story ended in a different way. The first story is about a 5-year-old boy named Levan Merritt who fell into a gorilla enclosure in England in 1986. After his long fall, Levan was knocked unconscious.
In the video that was taken, we can hear his mother screaming as a silverback gorilla named Jambo approaches Levan. To the onlooker's surprise, Jambo starts stroking Levan’s back and keeping other gorillas away from him. When the boy wakes up and starts to cry, it scares off the gorillas, giving the zookeepers a chance to rescue him.
Ten years later, it happened again. This situation took place at the Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago. A 3-year-old boy fell 20 feet into the gorilla exhibit. The boy was then rescued by a female gorilla named Binti. She picked up the little boy and cradled him in her arms. She then carried the boy to the cage door and stepped away once the zookeepers opened the door to rescue him.
Inside Edition then shares an interview with famed zookeeper Jack Hanna discussing this situation. He says, “That gorilla was raised here at the Columbus Zoo by people, you follow me? It was raised with people.”
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Both situations ended with zero violence toward the gorillas, unlike a controversial case at the Cincinnati Zoo. Jack Hanna commented on that situation as well, saying, “The child was unconscious, the one in Europe that child was unconscious, this child was not, he was conscious, he was screaming. Obviously, this gorilla doesn’t know what that screaming means.” The child screaming caused that gorilla, Harambe, to panic and drag the little boy around, ending in Harambe getting shot.
To view the whole story, click the video!
