Don't panic, but there's an animal loose in the Zoo Grounds.

14-09-2008

It seems about right, surely that was a joke

14-09-2008

Not so funny if you'd been stung, though!

14-09-2008

No, but the Zoo has warned them even if the sign was in a stupid position.

15-09-2008

Ok I take some of it back. However most escaped animals if given a free route would try to get away - this is what usually happens with chimps and monkeys that escape.

The jaguar story from Doué-la-Fontaine:
BBC News | Europe | Escaped jaguar kills child


I find it surprising that there are attempts to explain Bokito's behaviour as dominance when he was presumably frightened and disorientated. Then again maybe he wasn't. The Dutch woman had a broken arm as well as bite wounds which I agree is serious. She still likes Bokito though. Woman still likes gorilla despite attack - Europe - MSNBC.com

15-09-2008

Quite a few middleaged ladies in some European zoos have special 'relationships' with male Gorillas in their local zoo, visiting them often etc. I believe this lady was one such, you may have seen the footage of Bokito being very 'familiar' pulling faces/interacting with her through the glass of the indoor cage.

I believe one theory is he was tempted to escape because he was frustrated at not being able to get near enough to her. Or that when he escaped she was in his path and he attacked her (the idea being that he bit her as punishment as he would a female gorilla that didn't submit to him) From the video clips afterwards in the restaurant he looks quite calm and appears at a loss what to do next. Bokito was handraised and at an earlier age had climbed out of his enclosure in Berlin Zoo more than once- seemingly to join people because he liked them.

15-09-2008

I think the scariest for me would be a black rhino,african or asian elephant bull,river hippo,cape buffalo,tiger,lion,jaguar,polar or grizzly bear an last but certainly not least,african wild dog and hyena

15-09-2008

Some animals do come back to the zoo... Auckland Zoo had a wolf escape about 50 years ago... It made it out of the zoo grounds and that night when everyone went home they left the gate ajar and found it just inside the gate the following morning after it had been hit by a car...

16-09-2008

I've been a visitor three times when there has been an escape, crimson-winged parakeet, Bennett's wallaby and hamadryas baboon. The latter two were quite easily recaptured, but the parakeet was still at large when I left the zoo.