Horrific story of woman who paid the price after smiling at gorilla in enclosure
Note to self - never make eye contact with a gorilla.
Back in 2007, a gorilla named Bokito escaped from his enclosure and attacked a woman, causing her serious injuries.
The tale has served as a warning after the woman - who was a regular at the Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam - was attacked after she had been regularly smiling and making eye contact towards the animal.
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According to reports at the time, it all kicked off at the zoo when Bokito responded to children who had been throwing rocks at him.
He then jumped over his enclosure and attacked the woman, reportedly dragging her around before biting her and causing multiple fractures.
He then entered a restaurant, where three more people were injured.
Bokito was eventually sedated with a tranquilliser gun and taken back to his enclosure.
Meanwhile, the woman was taken to hospital.
In the aftermath, many wondered why Bokito had chosen to attack the woman specifically.
Apparently, she had been visiting the gorilla on an average of four times a week since he was four months old and had a habit of making eye contact with Bokito and smiling at him - which her husband said she had been advised not to do by a zookeeper.
In an interview with newspaper De Telegraaf, the woman later said: "If I laugh at him, he laughs back."
But according to the website, Gorilla Trek, making eye contact with a gorilla is a huge no-no.
"To mountain gorillas, any person who keeps direct eye contact with them is a challenger and an enemy who comes to destroy the family," they explain.
"Direct eye contact will therefore force the silverback to charge and fight you in order to defend his family. If you want to be peaceful with gorillas, you should avoid eye contact."
Discussing the incident, one person shared their own experience on Reddit: I once worked in a zoo on work experience at 15. I made the briefest of eye contact with a sliver back at the back feeding part of the enclosure, (not dissimilar to silence if the lambs prison, but with fencing) that was enough to of caused it to run at me and smash against the weak looking fencing with both fists and grunting heavily.
"He then grunt called to the others, who sloped off there platforms and started trying to get me with sticks and throw hay at me, I was quickly escorted out.
"It was prob because a cute baby gorilla was bashing its chest till it fell backwards and I was watching that, and the silver back was watching me in the background.
"They are very much not to be messed with and like pretty much all other animals, not to be imprisoned for our viewing curiosity."
Lucy Devine