A 4-year-old boy fell into the enclosure of a western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo on Saturday, causing zoo officials to shoot and kill the animal.
Photo of Harambe via Flickr by Mark Dumont, cropped and resized/CC BY-NC 2.0
Harambe, the 400-pound gorilla in question, turned 17 years of age on Friday, but ended up dead just before 4 p.m. on Saturday.
It happened at Cincinnati Zoo on Saturday. Reportedly the child’s parents were busy with other children when the boy slipped into the gorilla’s enclosure.
Reportedly there is a steel railing between onlookers and the gorilla enclosure, as well as a deep moat, but it turns out the boy climbed under the railing, went through some bushes and wires and fell several feet into the moat.
Two female gorillas in the enclosure were reportedly called out of the habitat, but the male gorilla, Harambe, climbed down to pick him up.
Cincinnati Zoo shoots dead gorilla after four-year-old boy fell into enclosure https://t.co/xcYF0y0Um0 pic.twitter.com/RPyCWZeUQA— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) May 29, 2016
Initially the gorilla stood over the boy in the moat and onlookers said it looked like he was protecting him, but then the animal picked up the boy and carried him around its habitat for around 10 minutes.
According to an incident report by the Cincinnati Fire Department, the gorilla was "violently dragging and throwing the child" when they were called.
In a press briefing by the director of the Cincinnati zoo, Thane Maynard said the zoo’s dangerous animal response team considered the situation to be life-threatening and eventually shot Harambe with a rifle.
Maynard said, "The child was not under attack but all sorts of things could happen," adding, "He certainly was at risk."
Maynard went on to say that zoo officials decided against using a tranquilizer gun to shoot Harambe, as the drug takes effect too slowly.
"You don't hit him and he falls over," Thane said. "It takes a few minutes."
After the gorilla was shot, the boy was taken to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and was reportedly alert and had suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
According to Maynard, the quick response of the zoo’s security team saved the boy’s life. However, employees at the zoo are devastated over the loss of a rare species.
As can be seen on the World Wildlife Fund’s web page, the western lowland gorilla is a critically endangered species. They can be found in the wild in Cameron, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea.
Harambe was born at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownville, Texas and moved to the Cincinnati Zoo, where officials said they hoped he would eventually father more gorillas.
Sources: CNN, WLWT
