Cincinnati Zoo: Terrifying Video Shows Gorilla Grabbing Child, 4, Who Fell Into Habitat

A horrifying new video shows what happened when a small child fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo! The four-year-old came face-to-face with the giant ape, and their meeting is almost too disturbing to watch.

A trip to the Cincinnati Zoo became a fight to survive for a four-year-old boy on May 28, after he managed to sneak under the fence at the gorilla habitat, and fell into the enclosure. The little boy was greeted at the bottom by a 400 pound gorilla, and footage of the encounter is chilling. Click through to watch — and warning, it’s disturbing.

The four-year-old boy snuck away from his mother and siblings to get a closer look at the Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo around 4:00pm local time. He managed to get past a fence, wires and bushes to get into the enclosure, but fell down a steep cliff, 10-12 feet into a moat at the bottom. Harambe, a 17-year-old Silverback gorilla, was inside a cave at the time, and came out to see what all the commotion was about.

When he saw the boy, Harambe cam

e up to him cautiously, then started touching him. The kid’s screams as he sees the 400 pound ape are absolutely haunting. We can’t imagine the terror he must have been feeling! The gorilla picks him up and marches him away from the crowd of onlookers, who are screaming and calling to the child.

Though you cannot see much of what happened after Harambe dragged the child away, a fire department incident report states that the gorilla was  “was violently dragging and throwing the child.” After the child was in the gorilla pit for approximately 10 minutes, the zoo’s dangerous animal response team made the hard decision to shoot Harambe. The child was between his legs when he was shot, according to fire officials. The child is recovering at the hospital; details on his condition and identity are being withheld at this time.

What a bittersweet ending! It’s obviously incredible that this brave kid was rescued safely, and that Harambe didn’t harm him. But fatally shooting Harambe has proved controversial; silverback gorillas are endangered. Cincinnati Zoo director Thayne Maynard is standing by the response team’s decision, as tranquilizer darts likely would not have subdued the 400 pound gorilla fast enough. “It’s a sad day all around,” Thayne said. “They made a tough choice and they made the right choice, because they saved that little boy’s life. It could have been very bad.”

Hey everyone, were you terrified by this video? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!



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