12.
Gorilla Saves Boy From Being Attacked
On August 16 1996 in the Brookfield Zoo in US, a three-year old boy climbed the wall around the gorilla enclosure and fell eighteen feet onto the concrete below, rendering him unconscious. Binti Jua, a female Lowland Gorilla, walked to the boy’s side while helpless spectators screamed, certain that the gorilla would harm the child. Another larger female gorilla approached, and Binti growled. Binti then picked up the child, cradling him with her right arm as she did her own infant, gave him a few pats on the back, and carried him sixty feet to an access entrance, so that zoo personnel could retrieve him. During all this, Binti’s seventeen-month-old baby, Koola, clutched her back throughout the incident. The boy spent four days in the hospital and recovered fully.
