NOPE.
At this point, we all just trust that the glass in certain exhibits at the zoo are built to withstand an attack or escape attempt by the animal being held. None of us would willingly go to the zoo to see our favorite animals (usually with our families) if we thought there was any potential danger, right?
Well, back in 2016, visitors at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska got quite the scare when they made their way to the gorilla exhibit. It’s always fun to see the large primates walk around in their artificial habitat (especially if a goose lands inside), and one family was gathered right by the glass to get a good look at the gorillas when this terrifying moment took place.
Something like this is undoubtedly “good day to wear brown pants” territory. The footage went viral online shortly after it happened, and it is always worth another look. Especially because this kind of accident doesn’t happen all of the time… or at least you hope it doesn’t.
A little girl can be seen in the reflection of the window beating her chest, and that spelled bad news for one of the adult gorillas. It took that as a sign that the kid, who was probably a third of the size of the ape, was challenging for authority and dominance of the area.
So the gorilla got a running start and terrifyingly jumped and slammed its hands into the glass, which caused the first layer of the window to break. Fortunately (and intelligently), the zoo had three layers of glass separating its visitors and its gorillas, so the glass wasn’t going to just fall out because of the attack.
However, the outburst was still enough for the family that had just been standing at the window to turn around and get the heck out of there. It is probably one of the scarier clips you’ll ever see:
I probably would have had a heart attack if that happened to me. Shoutout to the dad in the video for saying, “Oh man,” then laughing nervously as he escorted his family out of the gorilla viewing area.
Officials at the Omaha, Nebraska zoo stated that even though the window broke, no one was ever in immediate danger. The glass-breaking was still enough to warrant a local news story about the heart-dropping incident, which has now been viewed over 16 million times since it happened back in 2016:
