The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo released details on an investigation into the death of two-year-old lowland gorilla Eyare, that occurred last week on Nov. 12.
Eyare was struck in the head by a horizontal hydraulic door while passing between rooms in the back of house of the zoo after a member of the animal care team mistakenly activated the wrong door to separate her from the gorilla troupe for training.
Despite efforts from the veterinary care team, including CPR, Eyare died of her traumatic head injuries.
“This tragedy has struck us all in the deepest way imaginable,” said Colleen Baird, Director of Animal Care, Health and Welfare at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.
“Eyare’s short but impactful life brought so much joy to our community, and she will be deeply missed by all. We will do everything we can to prevent future incidents.”
The investigation into the death of Eyare was performed by staff at the zoo, along with external experts. The findings are set to be shared with the zoo’s accrediting body, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Baird said that the staff member involved was moved from gorilla care, and has been provided support by the zoo. They will be reassigned to another area of the zoo and will receive further staff training for that area, she said.
“The individual staff member was looking at a door she was attending. They were intending to move but mistakenly moved a different door, and that’s what happened. The slides are labelled. We have colour codes. The slides are clearly labelled. The doors are numbered. They have colours. It was mistakenly moving a different door that they were intending to move,” said Baird.
Steps being undertaken to prevent any further accidents
Other steps will be taken by the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, including new specialized annual recurrent training for the gorilla care team, in addition to the annual training that is undertaken, to demonstrate proficiency with hydraulic doors.
New safeguards and new animal behaviour training regimes will be implemented to encourage all gorillas to maintain a safe distance from doors during movement times.
There will also be a reassessment of both the use of hydraulic doors and control level locations to confirm visually and by touch what animal door is being moved.
Those types of doors found in Calgary are also commonly used by accredited zoos worldwide.
“We have interviewed our team members that work with the hydraulic doors. We are looking into all of the doors, gates, and ways that we move animals across the zoo to further look at how these operations work and how staff are comfortable using them,” said Baird.
“We have near-miss reporting… staff have the capability of reporting near misses, and we encourage them to do so, and they do use those tools.”
In the past decade, there have been only two human-caused deaths at the Calgary Zoo that have led to fatalities of animals, said Baird.
In addition to Eyare, Logan, a 12-year-old river otter drowned after becoming tangled in a pair of pants dropped into the Canadian Wilds river otter enclosure in 2016.
“Each case is different. We work in very complex areas. Our animals have complex needs and structures. In the past 10 years, we’ve only had two instances that were human error. Animals live their lives in zoos and institutions from birth and hatch, through all life stages up until geriatric care, and euthanasia,” Baird said.
“Sometimes animals die from disease. Sometimes it’s a planned euthanasia. On the very rare occasion, it is human error.”
Statistics released by the zoo indicate that mortality amongst the zoo’s animal population is three per cent per year, with all but two a result of causes other than old age or disease.
