Zoo Worker Mistakes Coworker In Gorilla Suit For Actual Gorilla, Tranquilizes Him

Jared Borislow10 years ago

A classic case of mistaken identity. Let’s just jump right into this one.

A veterinarian at Loro Parque, a zoo and marine park in Tenerife Spain with a disturbing history of animal welfare violations, shot another park employee who was dressed up in a gorilla costume with a tranquilizer. The keeper who was shot was was participating in a practice drill to simulate the escape of a captive gorilla from one of the enclosures.

The employee was running around the park mimicking an escaped gorilla when the veterinarian spied him and, apparently uninformed about the drill, shot him in the leg with a tranquilizer dose meant to take down a 400-pound gorilla. The employee had an allergic reaction to the dose and was taken to University Hospital of the Canary Islands, where he is in serious condition.

I should start off by saying that this is not funny–until we find out that the gorilla suit dude is okay. Then it’s hilarious. Try to picture it. If you need some help, here’s how I imagined it went down:

This zoo worker is just standing there and sees a gorilla going apeshit (literally) around the park. He freaks out and tries to remember his training and what they taught him to do in this situation. Then he remembers he was never trained on this particular topic.

“Stupid zoo!” he said, but probably in Spanish. “Why don’t they teach us this stuff?”

Arms shaking out of nervousness, he grabs his tranquilizer gun, aims it at the galloping gorilla, closes his eyes as a single tear streams down his cheek (he loves animals, you guys) and fires, nailing the beast in its leg. Except it’s not a gorilla. It’s Roberto, the janitor who management paid to take part in the training exercise that the zoo worker didn’t know was going on.

Check your email, man.

[via The Dodo]

Image via gorillacostumes.net