Sex Male Species Gorilla gorilla | Residence Rotterdam, Netherlands | |
 | ||
Born March 14, 1996 (age 20)
Berlin, Germany ( 1996-03-14 ) | ||
Bokito gorilla
Bokito (born March 14, 1996) is a male western gorilla born in captivity, currently living in Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He became the subject of considerable media coverage after breaking out of his enclosure on May 18, 2007, abducting a female visitor and severely injuring her.
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Bokito was born in the Zoologischer Garten, Berlin, Germany, and was abandoned by his mother at birth. He was then raised by human attendants. To avoid the risk of inbreeding, he was transferred to Rotterdam in August 2005, where the mauling incident later took place.
Incidents
In mid-2004, Bokito escaped from his enclosure in Berlin and climbed its 3 metre high wall. He was escorted back to his cage without incident.
On May 18, 2007, Bokito jumped over the water-filled ditch that separated his Rotterdam enclosure from the public and violently attacked a woman, dragging her around for tens of metres and inflicting bone fractures as well as more than a hundred bite wounds. He subsequently entered a nearby restaurant, causing panic among the visitors. During this encounter, three more people were injured as a result of the panic. Bokito was eventually sedated with the help of a tranquilizer gun and placed back in his cage.
The woman who was attacked had been a regular visitor to the great apes' enclosure, visiting an average of four times per week. She had a habit of touching the glass that separated her from the gorillas, while making eye contact with Bokito and smiling at him — a practice that is discouraged by primatologists, as apes are likely to interpret human smiling as a form of aggressive display. 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, "If I smile at him, he smiles back".
Aftermath
The week after Bokito's escape, a local health insurance company sponsored the production of 2,000 BokitoKijkers ("Bokito viewers"), paper visors which disguise 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.
Offspring
Bokito is the dominant male of his gorilla group. He has thus far fathered five offspring with two females in his group: the offspring were born between October 2006 and July 2011. The main contender to his title as dominant male, Dango, was transferred to Shanghai in 2007 along with his two primary female mates.