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Video captured a massive western lowland gorilla charging at the wall of its enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, smashing one of the panels of thick glass in front shocked visitors. Luckily for the zoo guests, the gorilla broke just the inner layer of the three-layered glass panel and was unable to reach them.
Denny, a 10-year-old western lowland gorilla, shocked several onlookers who were viewing the San Diego Zoo’s gorilla forest habitat through the looking glass when he ran at them. The gorilla was reportedly uninjured after his outburst, but the same could not be said for the glass which had to be replaced.
“Gorillas, particularly males, will often do what we call ‘charging displays,’ as a kind of an act of like showing off,” Dr. Erin Riley, an anthropology professor at San Diego State University, told CBS 8 News. “What I don’t know, of course, since I wasn’t there, is whether or not there was something that kind of provoked, that display behavior. One of the things that gorillas actually don’t like is to be stared at directly in the eyes, and that’s not something that that zoo visitors always understand.”
Dr. Riley added that Denny may have just been playing around, but she thought that was unlikely considering the situation. She also added that since one of Denny’s siblings, Maka, died at the age of 30 in August, he may still be in mourning, which could affect his behavior.
“Given that it was directed towards the window, which is where the visitors are, I don’t know if they were feeling threatened, if there were a lot of people there at the time that made Denny feel a little bit threatened,” she said.
The San Diego Zoo said an average western lowland gorilla is usually 5 to 6 feet tall and adult males can weigh up to 500 pounds, making them the largest primates in the world. They are also endangered species due to deforestation of their habitats in central Africa.