With the recent news of a gorilla having to be put down after a young boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, the following story/video certainly came to mind.
In 1986, five-year-old Levan Merritt fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Jersey zoo and lost consciousness. Inside the enclosure, roamed multiple massive gorilla’s. One gorilla in-particular, ‘Jambo’, stood guard over the boy when he was unconscious, placing himself between the boy and other gorillas in what ethologists analyze as a protective gesture.
He later stroked the unconscious boy in an attempt to comfort the child. When Levan regained consciousness and started to cry, Jambo and the other gorillas retreated.
A paramedic and two zoo keepers jumped into the enclosure and rescued the boy. Most of the tense situation was shot on home video by Brian Le Lion, and extensively photographed by zoo visitors.
Check out the tense video below. It certainly shows a very different way to handle this horrific situation.
