Image: London Zoo
On October 13, Kumbuka, the silverback gorilla escaped his enclosure at London Zoo before being recaptured. The gorilla, as reported by The Guardian, during his brief stay away from his enclosure also drank five liters of black currant concentrate.
Kumbuka seized the opportunity to escape his enclosure when a zoo keeper mistakenly left the two doors open. He came out of his enclosure and roamed around in the corridor which is used only by the zoo keepers. He however was kept calm by a zoo keeper. He than went on to have more than a gallon of concentrated squash.
Kumbuka was also choosy about his drink as he didn’t go for the orange juice, which was also present there. It was also reported that the blackcurrant squash was his target since couple of weeks. So, he seized the opportunity to enjoy the sweet drink.
The blackcurrant squash luckily doesn’t harm or have any side effects, so, Kumbuka is fully fit and fine.
The zoological director for London Zoo, Professor David Field said:
“I can certainly tell you that there were no broken locks, Kumbuka did not smash any windows, he was never ‘on the loose’, and his normal gorilla posturing reported by visitors earlier in the day was unrelated to the incident.”
“Staff raised the alarm that triggered our standard escape response, while Kumbuka briefly explored the zookeeper area next door to his den, where he opened and drank five litres of undiluted blackcurrant squash,” he continued.
He added, “Kumbuka was immediately contained in the non-public area by quick-thinking zookeepers responding to the alarm, where he was tranquilised and moved back into his den.”
He was then returned to his enclosure safely where he’ll get to see his girl Aika and boy Gernot.