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CALGARY - A Calgary zookeeper has been suspended after a gorilla nearly escaped his enclosure.
Shortly before the zoo opened Monday morning, a seven-year-old male gorilla jumped about three metres from a pile of accumulated snow and ice onto the top of the glass perimeter screen that separates the primates from the public.
"There was some sort of accumulation of snow and ice in the moat of his enclosure," said zoo spokeswoman Laurie Herron. "He managed to use that as a bit of a jumping board and was able to reach the top of the glass enclosure."
The animal's keeper was supposed to have checked the enclosure's yard to ensure it was safe to let the two gorillas outside. That wasn't done, Herron said.
A zoo staff member then walked around the corner by the gorilla exhibit and came face-to-face with Shana sitting atop the glass.
"The gorilla was every bit as startled as the staff member and jumped right back into the enclosure," said Herron.
Herron said Shana, who has only been at the zoo since last May, is small for his age at about 57 kilograms and is a shy, retiring sort.
"That's why he immediately jumped back to the safety of his enclosure," she said.
The staffer informed the keeper, who was able to get both gorillas back inside out of the yard. The ice and snow were then removed.
Shana was unhurt.
Shana's adventure is the latest in a long series of mishaps and accidents at the zoo that have included everything from snakes escaping down a drain to a capybara being crushed by a hydraulic door.
In 2008, 41 stingrays died as a result of an oxygenation error after the opening of an interactive exhibit where people could pet them in the water. A Turkmenian markhor got caught in a rope in its enclosure and strangled to death. In 2007, a hippo being transported from the Denver Zoo died less than a day after its 28-hour transfer.
An outside review by the agency that accredits zoos in North America is currently being conducted at the Calgary Zoo's request.
