{"id":2822,"date":"2025-10-14T02:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/2822\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T02:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:00:10","slug":"startling-video-captures-massive-gorilla-smashing-glass-wall-of-san-diego-zoo-enclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/2822\/","title":{"rendered":"Startling video captures massive gorilla smashing glass wall of San Diego Zoo enclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A massive gorilla was seen charging at the wall of its enclosure at a California zoo, smashing a portion of a thick glass panel in front of horrified onlookers, shocking video captured.<\/p>\n<p>Denny, a 10-year-old western lowland gorilla, shattered one layer of a three-layered tempered glass panel at the San Diego Zoo\u2019s\u00a0gorilla forest habitat on Saturday, zoo officials <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs8.com\/article\/life\/animals\/gorilla-breaks-glass-panel-at-san-diego-zoo\/509-ee6dbc20-c543-4b36-9e73-59e71905ae83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">confirmed, according to CBS8. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Denny, a 10-year-old western lowland gorilla, shattered<br \/>one layer of a three-layered tempered glass panel. Emily Holguin<\/p>\n<p>Footage obtained by the outlet captured him catapulting <br \/>toward the glass wall, causing several onlookers to gasp <br \/>and scream as they walked away from the habitat. Emily Holguin<\/p>\n<p>Footage obtained by the outlet captured him catapulting toward the glass wall, causing several onlookers to gasp and scream as they walked away from the habitat.<\/p>\n<p>Images also showed members of the crowd investigating the partially shattered panel, following the smashing session.<\/p>\n<p>Denny was not injured in the incident. He and the other gorilla living in the enclosure will be cared for while the panel is replaced, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, Denny had lived with his other siblings, including his brother Maka, who suddenly died in August at the age of 30 from a cardiac event, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SanDiegoZoo\/posts\/in-what-stands-as-one-of-the-most-challenging-periods-in-recent-memory-for-our-s\/1119027496991236\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the zoo announced. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Erin Riley, an anthropology professor at San Diego State University, said several factors could have provoked the behavior, including Denny\u2019s grief for his late brother, CBS8 reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/05\/13\/gorillas-hilariously-try-to-avoid-rain-at-south-carolina-zoo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gorillas<\/a>, particularly males, will often do what we call \u2018charging displays,\u2019 as a kind of an act of like showing off,\u201d Riley told the outlet. \u201cWhat I don\u2019t know, of course, since I wasn\u2019t there, is whether or not there was something that kind of provoked, that display behavior.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things that gorillas actually don\u2019t like is to be stared at directly in the eyes, and that\u2019s not something that zoo visitors always understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Previously, Denny had lived with his other siblings, including his brother <br \/>Maka, who suddenly died in August at the age of 30 from a cardiac event, <br \/>the zoo announced.  Emily Holguin<\/p>\n<p>Western lowland gorillas are the largest primates in the world, with adult <br \/>males weighing up to 500 pounds, according to the zoo\u2019s website. Emily Holguin<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also possible that the large primate was simply having fun, but since his attention was directed at the glass, it could indicate something occurring amongst spectators that could have made him feel \u201ca little bit threatened,\u201d Riley theorized. <\/p>\n<p>Western lowland gorillas are the largest primates in the world, with adult males weighing up to 500 pounds, according to the zoo\u2019s website. <\/p>\n<p>The species is endangered due to deforestation in its central African habitats.<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego Zoo did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A massive gorilla was seen charging at the wall of its enclosure at a California zoo, smashing a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3680,74,76,75,3586,3343],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-gorillas","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-us-news","tag-zoos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}