What's Going On: Going ape at the Henry Doorly Zoo

 A couple weeks ago, my wife and I loaded up the kids in the van and headed to Omaha to use our new Henry Doorly Zoo pass we purchased at the Catholic Church fish fry. 

As the kid in charge, I decided to make a beeline to my favorite exhibit in any zoo: the gorillas. 

For those who haven’t been there, the Omaha zoo has a great gorilla exhibit. You can walk through inside and look at the gorillas outside, separated only by a glass partition. Unlike some exhibits I’ve seen, the gorillas are literally right there, inches away, instead of sometimes hundreds of feet. 

And the gorillas were accommodating this day, sitting right up against the glass. For the most part, they were ambivalent about the two-legged creatures on the other side, but on occasion, one would get froggy and pound his chest. 

Once though, one got especially wound up and threw his entire body against the partition. That got a squeal from the crowd and an unsuccessful attempt by me to get a picture of the action. 

That incident was foremost in my mind when I read the story Saturday about one of the same gorillas, in the same zoo, rushing the glass and cracking it after throwing all of his 385-pound mass against it. 

Dan Cassidy, the man in charge at the zoo, assured the general public it was never in danger. There were no evacuations, the exhibit remained open and, fear not, the gorilla wasn’t “punished.”

Cassidy explained there are actually three layers of glass, adding that’s why there was no danger to the public. 

While I watched the video of the incident on my laptop, my 5-year-old son came up and took an immediate interest. Much like his father, his attention is immediately captured by primates. 

Reminding him of our recent experience at the zoo and the gorilla banging on the glass, I replayed the video for him. 

After playing the 12-second clip a couple more times, I recognized the wide-eyed expression on his face as one of amazement mixed with a little bit of fear. 

I repeated Cassidy’s chorus, telling my son the gorilla couldn’t break through the glass because there were three layers of it. I reassured him, saying that when we went there again in a couple weeks on a field trip with his kindergarten class, he wouldn’t need to worry. 

He cocked his head and asked me: “If there are three layers of glass, what if he just hit it three times? Couldn’t he break through then?”

Um. Mr. Cassady, can you handle that one?

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.