
When a zoo closes one of the main jobs is figuring out what to do with all of the animals, who have probably spent so long outside their natural habitat that they'd struggle to survive there.
But old zoo sites are also ripe targets for urban explorers to poke around in, and recently one such explorer came across a zoo that had been closed to the public with animals still there.
Bristol Zoo in the UK closed its doors to visitors in 2022 after financial pressures from the pandemic became too much to bear, but when a few years later an urban explorer decided to investigate it they found some gorillas still in their enclosure.
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Acting as though there was some great secret to be uncovered in their video they wondered 'what are you hiding' and 'what is it you don't want everyone to know' before showing the gorillas.
The urban explorer raged that 'these gorillas should never be in there' in a video which went viral - but updates from the zoo reveal the truth.
You can put the pitchforks down, Bristol Zoo is just moving to another location and the African Forest habitat at the new location is still having some work done on it.
It wouldn't make sense to take the gorillas out of one habitat they were used to staying in when the next one wasn't available, and Bristol does not really need homeless gorillas when their current accommodation is still there.
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Earlier this year they said they'd 'been dealing with break ins at the old Bristol Zoo Gardens site' where the gorillas were still being cared for, and that people getting in set off the alarms which distressed the animals.
A couple of days ago the zoo released an update on the African Forest habitat and it seems like progress is coming along swimmingly.
They're busy planting trees, building enclosures and they've put in the climbing structures for the gorillas when they move in.
Responding to people's questions on social media, the zoo staff said that the gorilla enclosure would be completed 'within the next couple of months' and they'd be moving over then.
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The zoo also explained the gorillas could still go outside in their current home, and 'recommend not getting your information from people who break into zoos to film content'.
So it would appear that, far from being stuck in a small building in a closed-down zoo and trying to break out, the gorillas are still in their previous enclosure being cared for until they can be moved to the new digs.
Also don't break into places for content, you could end up in trouble.
LADbible group has contacted Bristol Zoo for comment.