An
8-year-old female gorilla at an Illinois zoo named Binti Jua, made
worldwide headlines when she carried a boy to safety after he slipped
away from his mother, climbed through a barrier and fell nearly 20 feet
into the Western Lowland Gorilla Pit, located at the Brookfield Zoo, on
Aug. 19, 1996.
The boy who suffered a broken hand and cuts to his face
was lying on the ground of the pen where six other gorillas were
present, before Binti Jua picked him up around the waist, carried him
safely to a door where rescuers waited as a crowd looked on.
The gorilla
was reportedly following her maternal instincts considering she carried
her own 17-month baby on her back throughout her encounter with the
boy. The rescued boy and his mother were also never identified and the
now 28-year-old gorilla is still living in the Brookfield Zoo gorilla
exhibit.