A Silverback gorilla cracked the glass window of its enclosure at a Omaha zoo Thursday, sending watchers scattering out of the building.
A video posted to YouTube, which had more than 1.3 million hits by Friday afternoon, shows the reflection of a little girl beating her chest in front of the window in the gorilla exhibit at the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. Suddenly, a gorilla runs across the enclosure and throws itself against the glass, which develops large cracks.
The man filming starts laughing, and can be heard saying “Oh, man” as everyone runs out of the exhibit.
A spokeswoman at the zoo told Omaha.com that the footage was taken on Thursday, but gave no additional information about the exhibit.
Zoo director Dennis Pate told KETV that this isn’t the first time the gorillas have cracked the glass, but he stressed that no one was ever in danger at the exhibit. The design of the glass is such that it won’t break, even when it’s cracked, he said.
"Humans share 98 percent of our DNA with gorillas, so it should never be a surprise when a gorilla who has been locked up and put on display in a zoo reacts just as we would — with boredom, frustration, anger, and even psychosis,” PETA said in a statement to KETV.
“The only surprise is that incidents like this one don't happen more often. Zoos simply can't come close to matching the space, diversity, companionship, and freedom that animals enjoy in the wild, and that's why PETA's motto reads, in part, that 'animals are not ours to use for entertainment.'"
Even with safety reassurances, the Internet community was appalled at the idea of the gorilla getting out.
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