The news of the boy falling into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo recently was shocking. But not as shocking as the news that zookeepers were forced to shoot a gorilla because of it. Poor Harambe was shot dead as a precaution to protect the child. It was an extremely sad turn of events and one which has seen criticism directed at both the zoo and the boy’s parents.
It was an avoidable death, but one which zookeepers felt compelled to do. But was Harambe definitely a danger? Well, no. A precedent has already been set for such occasions. There was Jambo the gorilla who guarded a child that fell into his enclosure at Jersey Zoo. And two decades ago, a young child did similar at Brookfield Zoo…
Binti Jua was the gorilla who rushed over to the kid. The 150lb gorilla carried her own 18 month-old baby called Koola on her back throughout the incident at the Western Lowland Gorilla Pit at the Brookfield Zoo on August 19th, 1996.
Yet she never once looked like hurting the child.
While we all still mourn the tragic loss of Harambe and will never know what he would have done with the child that fell into his enclosure, let’s look back at how Binti Jua reacted two decades back…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xr1YjwDNm4
