Before viral videos, Casey the gorilla knocked out visitors (once, literally) at Omaha zoo
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2015 12:30 am
By Kevin Cole / World-Herald staff writer
When a silverback gorilla at the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium cracked the viewing glass on its enclosure last week, it wasnt the first time a window broke in the big apes compound.
Dr. Lee Simmons who retired as zoo director in 2009 said he recalls a couple of glass breaks back in the days of a 600-pound gorilla named Casey, but Casey wasnt to blame.
One time, a TV station stuck a hot light up against the glass to film him better, Simmons said Sunday. The heat from the light (affected) the glass and boom, it blew.
No one was injured, including Casey, but Simmons still remembers the gorillas reaction.
When that window went, Casey threw his hands up in front of his face and rolled over backward. He reacted as if a cherry bomb had gone off.
Another gorilla cracked glass in a window after it was weakened by a woman who tried to see if her diamond ring would cut it, Simmons said. The glass cracked when the gorilla hammered on it.
Casey, who came to Omaha in 1968 from St. Paul, Minnesota, was a major attraction during his 12 years here, Simmons said, and the public and press were always interested in his exploits.
Simmons said the silverback that broke the glass last week was having a tough guy contest with another male. Charging the glass and landing a blow is one way for a gorilla to make a point, he said.
Visitors are in no danger if a crack does appear because the glass is layered, Simmons said, and only one of four or five layers was broken in the recent incident.
The gorillas will also hit the glass just for amusement and fun. They do it to see the kids scatter.
When the gorilla broke the glass last Thursday, a zoo visitor said later that he had made eye contact with the great ape. Simmons said zoo personnel know that making eye contact with a male gorilla is dangerous.
You never make eye contact, because thats considered a challenge.
Zoo employees learned a lot about how to act around male gorillas from their adventures with Casey, Simmons said.
For instance, the staff had the idea of welcoming the College World Series to town by tossing a baseball into Caseys enclosure. (He was named for the poem Casey at the Bat.)
After a few minutes, Casey tossed the baseball back. Then someone tossed the gorilla a baseball bat.
In retrospect that was not a very good idea at all, Simmons said. Casey carried the bat around for a while, then he turned and side-armed it back, and a TV camera went down. Its lucky he broke the camera and not the cameraman.
Another time, a handler transferring Casey and two female gorillas became distracted when he stopped to talk to a supervisor. Returning to his job, the handler opened the door from a kitchen to the gorilla exhibit and found himself face-to-face with Casey.
He tried to slam the door shut, and Casey held it open with one finger. The handler took off running and the three gorillas went in (to the kitchen) and grabbed all the bananas and fruit and dragged them out into the exhibit to eat.
Casey also grabbed the guys goose-down jacket and sat there in the exhibit eating that.
Handlers also learned to check Caseys exhibit for rocks because he proved many times that he had very good aim. One time, Simmons said, some teenagers were tossing rocks into the exhibit when a regular visitor confronted them about their behavior.
About the time he was done lecturing the kids, the guy turns around and looks at Casey, Simmons said. This man came to the zoo all the time, and Casey probably recognized him. Casey picked up one of those rocks and side-armed it into the mans forehead, knocking him unconscious.
As a big fan of the zoo and Casey in particular, the man didnt want to make any trouble, Simmons said.
We put him in my Jeep and took him up to the old St. Joes Hospital. He had a nice three-cornered cut that the doctor had to put a couple of stitches in.
Casey, who was born in the wild, died at age 23 in 1980 from heart disease. He sired seven offspring, and his contributions as a star attraction were enormous, Simmons said.
He was a big deal, Simmons said. But he sure was a rock-chucking son of a gun.
