May 28th, 2016

On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy visiting the Cincinnati Zoo fell into the moat at the Gorilla World habitat. Witnesses said they heard the child say he wanted to go into the gorilla enclosure. The boy then climbed a 3-foot-tall (0.91 m) fence, crawled through 4 feet (1.2 m) of bushes, and then fell 15 feet (4.6 m) into a moat of shallow water. Zoo officials immediately signaled for the three gorillas in the habitat to return inside, and two females did so. However, the third gorilla, the inquisitive 440 pound male silverback, Harambe, climbed down into the moat to investigate the child splashing in the water. Over the next 10 minutes, Harambe became increasingly "agitated and disorie...View all