RIGHT ANGLE: DEATH OF A GORILLA

I wasn’t going to opine but, after watching the video, I couldn’t hold back.
First question: Where the hell was the mother?

Whenever there’s and encounter between human and nature, in a “natural setting”, the question should be why was the human in proximity? Were they hunting or just gazing? Did they take appropriate measures to avoid being attacked or were they carelessly traipsing through the tulips, devoid of reality?

As to a “zoo setting”; How did that kid get in there? That animal is in a cage. Not in the wild, where it belongs. It’s been shouted at, thrown at, man-handled and limited to the barrier walls of a foreign planet.

When a human child falls in, it’s to be EXPECTED that that animal pay attention. And with simians being social animals, not unlike ourselves, it’s to be expected that they approach and try to interact. Perhaps not as gently as another human would (though some “humans” are worse) but their instinct is to assist a crying child who poses no threat. Even the larger cats have been known to help kids and protect them.

Both and neither are to blame. Parents need to watch their kids and zoo keepers need to “think like a child” and take measures that this will never happen again.