LP Zoo Gorilla: Respect My Authoritiiiiii!

By Andrew Peerless in Miscellaneous on Jul 6, 2005 1:04PM

Note to selves: Male gorillas are not especially fond of having their authority questioned, and do not like to have their females ogled. Those who feel compelled to partake in either of these activities may wind up with a serious monkey on their backs - fo' real.

That's just what happened yesterday at the beleaguered Lincoln Park Zoo, when a 32-year-old zookeeper intern erroneously ended up inside an enclosure with a 16-year-old gorilla named Kwan. Unnerved by the zookeeper's presence, Kwan did what any self-respecting simeon simian would do: He threw her to the ground and "mouthed" her, essentially flashing the gorilla version of a territorial gang sign by biting her on the left side of her back and then retreating. Neither the intern nor Kwan were seriously injured in the attack, which is lucky given the monster teeth gorillas keep on hand for serious fighting.

Unfortunately, this isn't exactly the first animal attack to come from the zoo in the past year. Last September, zookeeper Nancy DiFiesta suffered serious head and neck wounds after falling victim to the advances of several angry lions. Zoo officials eventually attributed that attack to human error, and it sounds to Chicagoist like a situation not dissimilar to yesterday's monkey business.

Either way, the zoo remains open while officials investigate what went wrong at the zoo this week. Sigh...