Baby Gorilla killed at SF zoo

[n2doc]

By Evan Sernoffsky and Carolyn Jones

A hydraulic door that crushed an endangered baby gorilla to death at the San Francisco Zoo on Friday night was custom made with a fully-functional manual shut-off switch, a zoo spokesman said Sunday.

The instant-stop switch, though, wasn’t pressed in time to save Kabibe, a 16-month-old gorilla, who unexpectedly darted under the hydraulic door as it was closing while she was being moved into her night quarters after the zoo closed.

The brutal death devastated zoo visitors and staff, along with some animal activists, who say better safety measures could have prevented such an accident.

...Kabibe, whose name means “little lady” in Swahili, was one of the few lowland gorillas born in captivity. The adorable underweight gorilla gained international fame after she overcame bleak odds of survival when her mother rejected her


more

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Hydraulic-door-that-killed-baby-gorilla-at-SF-Zoo-5882033.php

[shenmue]

1. ...

[MoonRiver]

2. OMG, poor, poor baby.

[LisaL]

3. They should have had a sensor on that door.

So much effort was made to raise the baby, and now it's dead.

[Needa Moment]

12. and we've had

collapsible safety disconnects on elevator doors for how long now? Pretty short-sighted...

[tclambert]

4. Garage door openers are required to have safety reversing features.

About fifteen pounds of pressure should activate an automatic reverse to open the door if it encounters a blockage. Since 1993, they are required to have two separate systems to reverse them if they contact an object.

[AngryAmish]

5. yeah, but that would not work well with an enraged gorilla

Sometimes the door gotta close. They are really strong.

[LisaL]

6. This was not an enraged gorilla. It was a tiny baby gorilla.

Which was killed, presumably because the door didn't have a sensor.

[dilby]

8. Was the baby Gorilla's mother with them?

Was the door originally designed with the foresight that someday there maybe a baby gorilla? It's a tragedy for sure but it does not make much sense to put sensors on doors that are intended to keep dangerous animals away from humans. Better yet it makes no sense to keep dangerous animals in cages for the amusement of humans.

[jmowreader]

9. Or because fifteen pounds of pressure would be more than enough to squash her flat

This gorilla was extremely small.

[tclambert]

7. An interesting point. I could see chimps intentionally refusing to let the door close.

Chimpanzees are smart and notoriously mischievous. If they found a way to mess with their keepers by blocking the door and making it reverse, they would do it. They would make a game out of it.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Pretty crappy track record for the SF Zoo.

Tatiana the tiger was killed in 2008: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/S-F-Zoo-visitor-saw-2-victims-of-tiger-attack-3233323.php

[Beringia]

11. so sad

I remember reading about the baby's birth and the matriarch of the tribe took care of him after the mother rejected him.

[glinda]

13. This is terrible!!!!!!!!