Zoo History: Guardian Gorillas

The scene could have been one out of a horror movie.  A child visiting the zoo tumbles over a railing and into the moat of an exhibit.  As dozens of terrified visitors look on, a giant gorilla approaches the prone child, looming over him as he lays on the exhibit floor.  Some of the onlookers gasp, others scream, awaiting the horrible, inevitable conclusion.

The only thing is, this did happen in real life.  Twice.  And in both cases, the result was a far cry from what Hollywood would have suggested.

On August 31, 1986, Levan Merritt tumbled into the gorilla exhibit at the Jersey Zoo, Gerald Durrell's private zoo in the Channel Islands.  Knocked unconscious by the fall, the boy was approached by Jambo, the zoo's 25 year old silverback gorilla.  Jambo took a defensive position over Merritt, watching and protecting him, even stroking the boy gently as he lay at the gorilla's feet.  When the boy did regain consciousness and began to scream (as, admittedly, I would probably do if opening my eyes and unexpectedly seeing a gorilla), Jambo did not panic, nor did he react aggressively.  Instead, he herded his females into their holding area, allowing zoo staff to retrieve the child and get him to safety.  Not that he wasn't safe with the gorillas, it would seem.

Captured on tape by bystanders, Jambo's care for five year old Levan Merritt helped dramatically change the popular perception of gorillas from hulking King Kong monsters to gentle, social creatures.  It seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

Then it happened again... on the other side of the world, ten years later (almost to the day).

On August 16, 1996, a three year old boy, visiting the Brookfield Zoo, fell into the gorilla exhibit in the Tropics World building.  A young female gorilla named Binti Jua rushed to the boy's side and looked over him, much as Jambo had done.  When other gorillas approached curiously, she growled at them and forced them back.  Throughout the entire experience, Binti's baby daughter, Koola, was clinging to her mother.  The child was retrieved by zoo personnel (who had, ironically enough, had a "child in gorilla exhibit" drill just days earlier) and, after a brief hospitalization for a broken hand, recovered.

Generally speaking, nothing good can come of a visitor winding up in a zoo exhibit with a powerful, potentially dangerous animal like a gorilla.  When it does occur, tragedy is often the result.  I'm sure that none of the keepers at Brookfield or Jersey would like a repeat performance of what happened at their zoos - the end result might not be pleasant the second time around.  That being said, what did occur at each of those institutions was a special experience that taught a valuable lesson about one of our closest relatives.