www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/14/london-zoo-gorilla-broke-enclosure-glass-twice-before-escapeLondon zoo gorilla broke enclosure glass twice before escape
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A silverback gorilla that escaped from its enclosure at London zoo has broken panes of glass at the attraction at least twice, the zoo has confirmed.
Visitors to the attraction were locked in tea rooms and gift shops for an hour and armed police rushed to the zoo on Thursday evening after Kumbuka, a dominant male gorilla, broke out of his enclosure into a secure keepers’ area before being tranquillised by vets and returned to his den.
ZSL London zoo said it was carrying out a full investigation into the event but described it as a “minor incident”, insisting the 29-stone (184kg) animal had “categorically” not broken any glass during the escape.
But the Guardian has learned that the gorilla, which the zoo has previously described as being “a little bit on the destructive side”, has twice broken windows at the large enclosure, most recently this spring. In that incident keepers were unable say if he had thrown a missile or himself at the glass, but determined from a footprint on the pane that Kumbuka had been responsible for the damage.
A spokeswoman said on Friday night that windows in the Gorilla Kingdom were triple-laminated and at no point had the gorilla smashed through the glass, which was designed to stay in its frame even if shattered. “ZSL London zoo has recorded no events involving Kumbuka over the past six months that have raised concerns about safety,” the zoo said in a statement.
Sources have claimed that the animal was able to get into the keepers’ area, a double-height, caged-off section running along one side of the enclosure, after a door was left open. The zoo said it could not confirm any details about the cause until an investigation into the incident had concluded.
London zoo says no member of the public was at risk, yet the incident inevitably has echoes of the incident at Cincinnati zoo in May, when a three-year-old boy was able to climb into the enclosure of a large silverback called Harambe, which was shot dead before the child was harmed.
On Friday, the morning after the night before, all was calm in Gorilla Kingdom. In the indoor section of the animals’ den, a very large room crammed with ropes, logs and hammocks, a female was chewing on a leafy branch while an infant swung from a knotted rope, provoking squeals of delight from a group of watching schoolchildren.
The large silverback sat at the very front of the enclosure, his back turned to the glass. For the most part he seemed dazed, still recovering from the tranquiliser dart, but occasionally he would slant a glance over his shoulder at those eagerly snapping his photograph only metres – and a thick pane of glass – away.
“I definitely wouldn’t like to meet him,” said Paul Yarwood from Dundee, who was visiting the zoo with his wife, son and grandson. He hadn’t been worried when he heard about the escape, he said, saying: “I’m sure it was more likely to be human error than anything being unsafe.”
“I wasn’t at all concerned,” said Jessica Oakley, who was there with her two young sons. “I felt more sad for the gorilla, to be honest.” Did she feel it suggested the animal was unhappy? “Definitely.”
Inevitably, some campaigners have raised the same question. Primatologist Ian Redmond, chairman of conservation group the Gorilla Organisation, said the incident “has again raised the public debate on the ethics of keeping great apes in captivity, and the plight of gorillas in general.
“It is to be hoped that the inquiry into how the escape happened will extend to a behavioural study to determine why Kumbuka appears to be so stressed.”
Is Kumbuku particularly aggressive or agitated –or is his behaviour just part of being an adult gorilla? In 2013, shortly after Kumbuka came to London from Paignton zoo, his keeper Dan Simmonds described him as being “a little bit on the destructive side”. He said: “We were warned by his keepers from his previous zoo that he does have a bit of a thing for ripping enclosures apart . And he’s been doing a bit of that. He’s been ripping the trees down, throwing them at the glass.” It was, added Simmonds, “just his way of saying: ‘I’m in charge ’.”
Stuart Semple, professor of evolutionary biology at Roehampton University, told the Guardian that even aggressive or agitated behaviour did not necessarily mean the gorilla was miserable.
“Gorillas in the wild are not completely pacific creatures. They do show aggression, and it is not unusual therefore to see aggression in an animal that’s kept in captivity.” He said his own research into gorilla behaviour had shown “there is no link between the number of visitors, the conditions they are kept in and the level of aggression they show”.
Stress, however, might be another matter. “We have good evidence that certain behaviours – scratching or fidgeting – is an indicator of anxiety, and in certain zoos those behaviours increase in frequency as visitor numbers go up and they get more noisy.”
According to Dr Emily Bethell, senior lecturer in primate behaviour at Liverpool John Moores University, the fact a captive gorilla was charging at the glass, banging on objects or throwing objects did not necessarily mean it was unhappy, since this was classic “display” behaviour designed to assert his dominance.
“But the problem can arise when this becomes a chronic situation, where he is being stared at by people, and is feeling under threat by being stared at day after day,” she said.
Certainly, Bethell said, the animal’s “escape” – a word keepers were resisting at the attraction on Friday, insisting it was “a very small incident” – was likely to be accidental rather than anything premeditated. “If, for example, someone had left a door unlocked, it’s very possible that a gorilla charging around displaying at the visitors might end up finding his way through it.”
The zoo was unable to confirm when its investigation into the incident will be concluded, but it was clear on Friday that while many visitors felt concerned by the animals’ position, the zoo’s conservation work made their captivity worthwhile.
“I do sometimes think that the way they are treated, the number of kids every day, is too much for the gorillas,” said Nikhil Jha, visiting the zoo from Singapore with his two-year-old son, RJ. “If they are treated well, then I suppose it is OK. But captivity has its price.”