169 YOU LOOKIN' AT ME?

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YOU LOOKIN’ AT ME?

Gorillas dislike direct eye contact, as wildlife experts know. Gorillas view such eye contact as a threat or a kind of taunting.

Proof of this fact happened nearly 20 years ago in Holland at the Rotterdam Zoo, and that startling event, in turn, gave rise to one of the most quirky marketing gimmicks ever.

In 2007, after a group of kids threw rocks at him, Bokito, the dominant male gorilla of his group, broke out of his cage.

Ton Dorrestijn, the zoo's director, told reporters: "He got over the moat, which in itself is remarkable because gorillas cannot swim. He jumped onto a visitor path and ran to the Oranje restaurant, moving through tables and diners at full speed."

But the 400-pound (200 kg) gorilla was not chasing the rock-throwers after he escaped. Instead, Bokito attacked a woman.

Then, after being cornered, Bokito was put to sleep with a dart and taken back to his enclosure.

Fortunately, the woman survived, despite being bitten, dragged, and suffering broken bones.

Some time later, Bokito’s motivation for attacking that specific woman was revealed. He had known her for a long time.

"My spouse and I visit the zoo almost daily, and we always see Bokito,” the woman admitted. "I even have photos and recordings from when he was just four months old."

She boasted that he would always return her smiles, when she smiled at him, not realizing that, when a gorilla flashes his teeth, it is not a smile: it is a warning!

Apparently, Bokito always felt threatened during this woman’s frequent trips to see him. When she gazed directly at him and showed her teeth and he showed his, she had the erroneous belief that they were bonding and smiling at each other, so she kept it up for years.

Even after the attack, the clueless woman still went on to say, "He is and always will be my sweetheart."

Afterward, this unsettling experience prompted an insurance company, FTBO, to create a marketing campaign that now, twenty years later, still makes people laugh.

The company gave zoo visitors cardboard glasses, designed to prevent eye contact with the gorilla. Known as “Bokito Viewers,” the fake glasses had a printed pair of eyes looking up while secret peep holes let wearers watch him without upsetting him.

For a time, the printable glasses were available as downloadable PDFs on the FTBO website, but the offer was a runaway success, so the company discontinued them.

After his famous jailbreak and revenge attack, Bokito made headlines twice more: once in 2021 when he contracted COVID-19 and again in 2023, when he died at the ripe old age of 27.

So, what do we learn from all this? Clearly, the most valuable lessons are always to wear your dark Ray Bans at the zoo around the big monkeys and never to show them your teeth. You do not want to upset any of the primates—gorilla or human.

Plus, you will look really cool, like Arnold Schwarzenegger.