Woman who paid horrific price for smiling at gorilla in enclosure described brutal attack

Back in 2007, a woman was attacked by a gorilla that escaped from its enclosure after she kept looking at it and smiling.

There's been a lot of gorilla discourse in recent days after the conversation over whether 100 men could beat one in a fight went viral.

For what it's worth, the experts make it clear that a solo fight between a human and a gorilla is going to be a win for the gorilla provided it's an unarmed bout.

However, 100 men could bring the weight of numbers to bear upon the gorilla and win the fight, though the expert opinion is that the human side should prepare for some casualties, but by focusing on the gorilla's vitals could bring it down after only a few blokes had been brutally mauled to death.

So, if you're going to be on the receiving end of a gorilla's ire then it's best to have 99 other people willing to pitch into the fight as backup.

Bokito the gorilla almost killed the woman after breaking out of his enclosure (JERRY LAMPEN/AFP via Getty Images)

That's not what a woman visiting the Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam had when a gorilla named Bokito escaped from his enclosure and attacked her.

She'd kept looking over and smiling at him, and then when some children started throwing rocks at the gorilla he escaped from his enclosure.

Attacking the woman, he bit her and caused serious damage as well as dragged her around on the ground.

Bokito went into a restaurant at the zoo and injured three other people, before the gorilla was sedated with tranquilisers and returned to his enclosure.

When people were wondering why Bokito made a beeline for the woman, it turns out she was a regular visitor to the zoo and was often looking at the gorilla despite zookeepers telling her not to make direct eye contact and smile.

They were able to tranquilise the gorilla and get him back in his enclosure (Rob Doolaard/AFP via Getty Images)

Despite the attack, the woman remained a fan of the gorilla, as she told Dutch media 'he is and remains my darling.'

She said: "I go to the zoo almost every day with my husband, and we’re always going to see Bokito. I even have pictures and videos from Berlin when he was only 4 months old.

"I stood by the small apes in the Africa section when I heard a thud behind me. I turned around and there was Bokito. I had nowhere to go. He gripped me, sat on me with his full weight and began biting me.

"I could only think, ‘Oh God, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.'"

For gorillas, direct eye contact can be seen as a challenge to their authority and it's considered to be aggressive behaviour from their perspective.

A smile can reveal your teeth, which is another sign of aggression, and they can also interpret a smiling face as fear on your part, which can end up being a signal to attack.

Bokito died unexpectedly in 2023.