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Popular Zoo Gorilla Accidentally Hangs Self With Climbing Rope

By Tim Newcomb, TIME

Tatu, pictured in 2007 at nine weeks, accidentally hanged himself on Friday at the Prague zoo, five years after gaining the spotlight when his birth was broadcast live on the internet.

July 31, 2012 Updated Jul 31, 2012 at 12:29 PM PDT

The curiosity of the young gorilla Tatu has led to his hanging death in the Prague Zoo.

The 5-year-old gorilla, well-known around the world after his birth was broadcast live online in 2007, accidentally entangled himself with a climbing rope on Friday in the gorilla wing’s sleeping quarters. The room has no cameras in it, so zoo officials were unable to see the scene unfolding.

Zoo officials said Tatu became enamored with a braided rope used by the group of six gorillas for climbing within the exhibit. Tatu, they say, unbraided the rope and somehow wrapped it around his neck in the hanging process.

Zookeepers rushed into the enclosure and struggled to get the other gorillas away from Tatu before an unsuccessful attempt to revive him. “It was mainly the female Kamba, the oldest member of the herd, who stubbornly refused to abandon Tatu,” zoo director Miroslav Bobek told the AFP news agency, though it was difficult to see if she was trying to help or not.

The last time a gorilla died in the Prague Zoo was during a flood in 2002.

To read this Time story, CLICK HERE.

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