Frightening moment San Diego Zoo gorilla charges, shatters its glass enclosure in front of terrified visitors

Witnesses at the San Diego Zoo described the “scary” moment when a gorilla charged the viewing area, cracking the tempered glass in the enclosure.

A now-viral video caught the scene at the San Diego Zoo gorilla forest habitat when Denny, a 10-year-old western lowland gorilla, an endangered species, lunged toward the viewing area. Panicked visitors reacted with gasps at the impact, which left one of the three layers of the tempered glass enclosure with a visible crack.

“It literally felt like an earthquake… before we realized that that was just him hitting [the glass],” visitor Jackie Doubler told KGTV.

“It was pretty scary. There definitely were people there quick though, security guards,” said Doubler who was visiting with family, adding that the Zoo “handled the situation well.”

“If he would hit that glass again, I definitely feel like it would have been a whole different story, though,” Doubler said.

Denny was reportedly not injured, according to zoo officials who said the two gorillas in the habitat will be cared for “behind the scenes” while repairs are made to the glass.

“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, said in an interview, according to CBS8.

“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,” she said. “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.”

Katya Sutil, a visitor celebrating her birthday at the zoo, described the experience to KTLA.

“We were looking down at our cell phones and didn’t notice that he had taken a running start, jumped and launched into the glass. He hit it with his elbow or forearm, like right in the glass directly in front of my face,” she said. “When it hit in front me, I was so jolted I fell back a few feet. When I looked up to see what had happened, I saw the gorilla staring directly at me, making eye contact with me, and then a giant crack… 6 feet. It was pretty big.”

“Honestly, the 20 minutes we were there, the gorillas were going back and forth, kind of taunting each other. One would charge the other and then disappear, then it would happen again,” Sutil added. “So maybe there was tension going on between the two gorillas.”

Senior Staff Writer
[email protected]

Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

Latest posts by Frieda Powers (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.