 A male gorilla attacked and bit an intern
But enough about Clinton ... *rimshot*
keeper Tuesday morning at Lincoln Park Zoo after another apparent breakdown of safety protocols placed her in an outdoor gorilla exhibit while the animals were present. Zoo officials blamed the gorilla attack on "human error" but said they have not determined whether the intern, a 32-year-old woman, or one or more of her colleagues was to blame. Last September, in another incident attributed to human error, a female keeper was seriously injured when two lions mauled her in their outdoor exhibit. The intern, whom zoo officials declined to identify, was not seriously injured when she was attacked shortly before 10 a.m. by Kwan, the 16-year-old silverback leader of a small troop that includes himself and three adult females. "Kwan exhibited behavior common to dominant males, shoving the woman down and mouthing her on the left side of her back," the zoo said in a statement.
| "C'mere, baby! Gimme a little cootch!" |
"During the encounter, [the intern] received a puncture wound on the left side of her back and a twisted ankle." The incident took place in the moated yard of the largest of three publicly viewable habitats at the Regenstein Center for African Apes, which opened to the public a year ago last week. Zoo officials are trying to piece together what events led to the intern being in the ape yard while Kwan's group was there, said zoo spokeswoman Kelly McGrath. The attack, she said, was over in moments. The intern yelled that she was under attack,
and another keeper sounded an alarm, but by then Kwan and the three females had moved into their indoor exhibit space, McGrath said. Keepers shut the access doors to keep the apes away from the intern, and she limped to safety on her own. "The injuries were really minor," said McGrath, adding that the intern "was even making little jokes about it right after it happened."
| "So there I was, being mauled by a horny gorilla, so I sez..." |
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