8mo ago

In 2007, after one of their gorillas, Bokito, escaped and attacked a women who stared at him every day, the Rotterdam Zoo started handing out glasses that tricked the gorillas to avoid stare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokito_(gorilla)

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All of these people are scheming something comically devious.
- no they’re not
  👉👈
- Williamina Dafoe in the back there in particular.
- I can hear it now
  "nyeh heh heh heh heh..."

That image is quite unsettling.

Wouldn't the better solution be to simply not turn gorillas into a public attraction?
- Generating awareness and sympathy is probably the biggest factor in keeping many endangered species alive
  
  To add to this, A lot of gorillas that are saved from unsafe/illegal conditions cannot go back into the wild. Places like The Rotterdam zoo provides a lot of enrichment for these animals that you won’t see at say, Joe’s roadside animal park.
  
  Another lie of capitalism. Species don't have inherent value, individuals of a species do. Which is why bad treatment of those individuals can't be justified by appealing to the species' survival. It's about money, like everywhere else.
- Whey do you mean? We entirely dominate them, and transparently acknowledge all species on this planet are either our commercial resources, or our entertainment
- If humans could put rainbows in a zoo they would.
  
  https://youtu.be/0LoenypUcmI?si=g1RjEmZCFcfOirDp
  
  Yes Hobbes.

Wait, a person came to a zoo every day and stared at a Gorilla?
How many days? Did this person just go to the zoo every single day and mean mug a gorilla?
Is this an anime plotline, a zoo employee, or is OP's headline a bit misleading?
- Zoo employees had previously warned her against doing this, but she continued, claiming a special bond with him: in an interview with De Telegraaf she said, "When I smile at him, he smiles back".
  If only I could have been that one employee who got to visit her in the hospital and whisper "told ya".
  
  Yeah that ain't a 'smile' he was doing
  
  They then moved the gorilla to a different city, and she followed the gorilla there and continued to stare at him. After he mauled her in the cafe, he just sat around peacefully and waited for the zookeepers to take him away.
  
  Why wouldn’t they just bar her crazy ass from the zoo.
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dutch-gorilla-idUSL3042888320070530/
  The 180 kg (397 lb) Bokito seriously injured a woman, who it later emerged has visited the ape almost every day since his arrival at the zoo a year and a half ago
  Dutch citizens lost sympathy for the woman after it emerged that she has visited the gorilla about four times a week and said that Bokito "remains her darling" despite suffering a broken arm and wrist and around 100 bites.
  Dutch Media widely reported that the woman misunderstood what she perceived as a smile from the gorilla. Experts suggest he was more likely to have been baring his teeth as a threat.
  
  One hundred bites. Holy fuck. Bet it didn't take him long either.

Fun fact: This incident was huge news in The Netherlands and inspired the new term "bokito-proof," meaning strong enough to withstand or contain a gorilla.
- https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/bokitoproof Well well!

Don't worry for gorilla, it still can get out.

Found a Reddit thread about this. Some of the users further down in the comments did some digging and found this old news article. Other Redditors mentioned that they don't give out the glasses anymore, and that the glasses were mainly a marketing plot by an ad agency.
- They definitely don't give those glasses anymore and in fact, the particular gorilla has passed away as well. I believe last year
- Thanks for the info, makes sense as this is from 15 years ago

'Everyday' - an adjective meaning 'normal' and 'mundane.
'Every day' - daily.
A trusted news source should know its own language.
- OP isn't a trusted news source...and the subtitle isn't a quote they pulled from the wiki article
  
  Indeed, still corrected the title
  
  The plot thickens
- One of the dumbest and most pedantic differences I can think of in the English language.
  
  There are many worse mistakes journalists make, this isn't one I'm particularly bothered by.
- Oh, thanks for the heads up from a non native speaker.
- Similarly, it's always grating to see on a dating profile that a person likes to "hangout."
- Corrected!

All of these people look like they're staring at me...? Wouldn't sunglasses have worked better?
- Those might look like freaks with HUGE eyes staring.

From Wikipedia
The week after Bokito's escape, a local health insurance company sponsored the production of 2,000 BokitoKijkers ("Bokito viewers"), paper visors which disguised the direction of the wearer's gaze. The visors were designed by advertising agency DDB Amsterdam, and won a Bronze Lion for promotional material at the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and a Eurobest Silver at the 2007 Eurobest European Advertising Festival.
The word "bokitoproof", meaning "durable enough to resist the actions of an enraged gorilla" and by extension "durable enough to resist the actions of a non-specific extreme situation" was voted the Word of the Year for 2007 in the Netherlands.

For those who didn't read how obsessed the woman was, let's just say there's a good chance she might have been attracted to the gorilla 🦍

Good job Bokito. Don't take anyones shit.

84 comments