Gorilla escapes from zoo cage and bites zookeeper

Buffalo Zoo

A 400lb gorilla escaped from its cage at a New York zoo, biting a zookeeper and causing panic among visitors and staff before being captured and tranquilised.

Keepers said that Koga, a 24-year-old silverback gorilla at Buffalo Zoo, slipped through an unlocked door and into a holding area, where he bit his keeper's hand and leg.

Visitors at the zoo were moved to secure locations and fire engines and an ambulance arrived at the scene, as well as police with a shot gun.

A skilled zoo vet eventually hit the animal with a tranquiliser dart using a blowpipe shot from a window.

The injured zoo keeper, who has looked after Koga for six years, locked herself into the enclosure with a female gorilla and her baby to escape the wrath of the rampaging animal.

Zoo president Donna Fernandes told Reuters: "He was probably just as surprised coming face to face with her as she was with him."

The zoo believes that the attack was more out of excitement than agression.

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team captain Mark Maraschiello told Reuters: "That was the scariest thing I've ever done in my career.

"It's a 400 pound animal that's capable of who knows what. He could rip your arm out of its socket."

Koga is safely back in his enclosure and the zoo is investigating how the door was left unlocked.

Last march, an Egyptian cobra escaped from its enclosure at Bronx Zoo. And in May, an escaped baby bearcat was killed by a lion at Chessington Zoo.

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