If you were the parent of the kid who went into the gorilla enclosure, do you think you would have gone in after him?

Gorillas will kill the offspring of rival tribes.

An adult going in after could have made the situation worse and right quick.

A tranquilizer dart would be slower to react and possibly angered the ape.

Prompt sniping was the best course of action.

I don’t know for sure what I would actually do.

I have two impulses – I want to protect both the child, and I don’t want the gorilla killed.

I have a notion that I’d try to climb down and distract the gorilla from the child somehow. But I also get that that’s partly silly and could get me killed or injured or do more harm than good.

On reflection, I think I would probably think about going in but not, and instead drive the yelping humans away from the scene. The gorilla was panicking because there was a crowd of human spectators it couldn’t really see who were suddenly making extreme panic sounds in response to every move it made. So I’d do all I could to drive the people away and get them to stop making all that noise. I think that’s the best way to try to protect the child from gorilla panic and the gorilla from human panic (and shooting).

@SecondHandStoke right. I’m just talking about my instincts.

I would have let the child pay for its mistake.
Personal responsibility and all.

Leave the child and let nature take its course to whatever end. Can always make a new (hopefully smarter) kid.

I probably would have, from what I know about myself.

I would have chased a woman into the enclosure, but only if the were the Gorilla My Dreams….

Can’t we just agree that the only thing that didn’t fuck up in this situation is the gorilla?

@johnpowell That, and that the gorilla was the one who died. Nice advanced civilization we have here. I think we can sense that there is a level we could upgrade to, but we’re not quite there yet.

If it were any of my kids, at or around that same age, there’s not a chance in hell that either would’ve fallen in because common fucking sense, basic parenting skills & instinctive vigilance tend to prevent such shit

That wasn’t the question @ucme. Put it in a different context then.

Quite a few answers meandered from the precise text of the question, but still…
In the fantasy world that had this happen with my kids then you bet your arse i’d have been in there, no choice, instinctive