"It got Grandma!" Chimpanzee flings poop, hits elderly woman in the face
Zoogoers were in for quite a show Sunday when they stopped to view the chimpanzee exhibit at John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Crowds gathered around the second-story viewing area as a large chimpanzee stood front and center on stone steps. They were enchanted by the primate, watching as it swayed back and forth and abruptly jumped up and down, pushing off its front arms.
Someone in the crowd could be heard giggling, “Oh, oh, oh, oh,” as the chimp started to make a loud noise.
Seconds later, the “oohing” turned into uncontrollable laughter followed by a loud shriek. The chimp apparently had feces in its hands the entire time and flung it toward the crowd, hitting an elderly woman smack-dab in the middle of her face.
“It got Grandma!” a 13-year-old boy yelled, as a woman sitting in an electric scooter turned to face her family in horror, poop smeared across her nose.
Erin Vargo, a former employee of John Ball Zoo, captured the whole thing on camera.
“So Jake and I thought we were going to have an average day at the zoo... turns out it would be the day of the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Vargo posted on Facebook Sunday afternoon. “I’m seriously dying of laughter. And I can’t believe I got it on video.”
The video has already been viewed more than 88,000 times.
“Poor Grandma,” one Facebook user commented.
“Literally the worst thing that could happen,” another added.
It was certainly a shock, but the woman, who has yet to be identified, and her family somehow still seemed to find the humor in it.
“Man,” a woman said as the family laughed.
Vargo, who formerly worked as an educational interpreter at the zoo where she gave several presentations about the chimps, told CBS News this isn’t the first time the chimp has thrown poop at spectators.
“He’s a serial poop thrower,” she said. “It’s just never actually hit someone.”
Vargo believes the chimp was actually aiming for a group of children who were taunting it.
“Chimps have an accurate underhand,” Vardo said. “So the chimp threw it at [the kids]. However, they ducked. The poor lady was just left there.”
The zoo did not clarify which of the seven chimps that live in the habitat — males Donnie and Sammy and females Jody, Susie, Kiambi, Peggy and Sanga — was believed to be the culprit. However, John Ball Zoo spokesman Krys Bylund told CBS News that one chimpanzee, in particular, is focused on people and “desires interaction” with people.
“At the exhibit, he will exhibit behaviors that cause many guests to respond with loud noises and laughter, which only encourages his further interaction with them,” Bylund explained. “One of the behaviors that he demonstrated on Sunday was to throw feces toward the people in the viewing area of the exhibit.”
The chimps are currently working with a chimpanzee behavioral specialist, which should help improve their interactions with zoogoers.
“In the immediate future, we are investigating options for additional transparent barriers at the viewing area of the exhibit that would protect guests from a similar situation in the future,” Bylund said. “In the meantime, this chimpanzee will also be only using the indoor spaces that all the chimpanzees use throughout the entire winter at the Zoo.”
But one thing is clear: people in the crowd weren’t the only ones who got a good laugh. The chimp seemed pretty pleased with its unexpected act.
