CINCINNATI — The 4-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo isn’t the first child to find himself face to face with one of nature’s most powerful beasts.
Harambe, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, was shot and killed on Saturday after dragging the boy around a moat because zookeepers feared for the child’s life.
The incident sparked a public outcry and brought our relationship with these magnificent endangered creatures into focus. Critics who argue Harambe was in fact protecting the boy can point to two historical precedents to back up their claims, the New York Daily News reported.
In 1986, 5-year-old boy Levan Merritt fell into the gorilla enclosure at Jersey Zoo in the U.K., breaking an arm and fracturing his skull, according to archive footage posted to YouTube.
With the child lying unconscious, a male silverback named Jambo stood over the boy and protected him from other gorillas. Zookeepers and a paramedic then rescued the boy, and he was pulled out of the enclosure.
In 1996, an unnamed 3-year-old boy fell nearly 20 feet into the gorilla enclosure at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. He was picked up by an 8-year-old female gorilla named Binti Jua, which had recently become a mother.
Binti Jua carried the boy to a door in the enclosure and guarded him from other gorillas, helping paramedics to retrieve the child. The boy had a broken hand and cuts to his face, according to WGNTV
While these stories have happy endings, the same can not be said for Harambe, as the uproar over the killing of the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla continues to be heard.
