Gorillas can be pretty adorable, but they can also be scary. Take, for example, a recent incident that happened at the highly-regarded San Diego Zoo over the weekend.
According to reports, a 10-year-old western lowland gorilla named Denny smashed through one layer of a sheet of three-layered tempered glass in the zoo’s gorilla forest habitat Saturday as visitors stared in shock. CBS 8 shared a video of the incident and zoo officials confirmed it to The New York Post.
Denny wasn’t injured, the officials told The Post. He and another gorilla will be cared for while the panel is repaired.
“It is common for male gorillas, especially in adolescence, to express these types of behaviors. Bursts of energy, charging, dragging items, or running sideways are all natural for a young male,” a spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo explained.
The Post also noted that Denny’s brother, 30-year-old Maka, suddenly died earlier this year from a cardiac event. In an Aug. 19 Facebook post, the San Diego Zoo said the loss of Maka was “one of the most challenging periods in recent memory,” there. It also said that the older gorilla had been diagnosed with chromosomal abnormalities at age 5 but had thrived for years before he began experiencing seizures.
“Born at the San Diego Zoo, Maka was truly the heart of our bachelor troop. He guided his younger brothers, Ekuba and Denny, with patience and steadiness, a small-but-mighty leader who naturally took on the role of mentor and earned their respect and devotion,” the zoo said. “His brothers were given the opportunity to spend time with Maka after his passing – a poignant moment that reminded us once again that connection and loss are universal languages we all share.”
Dr. Erin Riley, an anthropology professor at San Diego State University cited by CBS 8, further explained that male gorillas sometimes do “charging displays” as a way to show off. She wasn’t at the scene and couldn’t say what might have caused Denny to act out, but she said the gorillas often do not like to be looked at directly in the eyes.
Western gorillas like Denny are “large, muscular, and serious-looking,” but they are also on the critically endangered IUCN list, per the San Diego Zoo. For the most part, they are peaceful, social, expressive, thoughtful, and intelligent, spending much of their time foraging for vegetation, the zoo added.