Woman paid horrifying price after making eye contact and smiling at gorilla in enclosure

A woman trying to befriend a gorilla at a zoo got more than she bargained for after frequently visiting his enclosure and making eye contact with the ape.

The Dutch woman paid a horrifying price of looking and smiling directly at a gorilla named Bokito, who she believed used to laugh with her anytime she did.

Bokito the gorilla managed to escape his enclosure and attack a woman who frequently visited him (JERRY LAMPEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Back in 2007, Bokito managed to escape from his enclosure at the Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo, in Rotterdam, and in doing so brutally attacked one woman before crashing into a restaurant on the park and injuring a further three people.

It wasn't until armed zookeepers managed to bring his terror to an end as they sedated him through the use of a tranquilliser gun.

Following the incident, authorities were trying to piece together what had caused Bokito to become enraged enough to break out of his enclosure.

According to reports at the time, it all kicked off at the zoo when Bokito responded to children who had been throwing rocks at him.

But after jumping over the walls of his enclosure, he initially only had eyes on the woman who he attacked - by way of dragging her around before biting her, causing multiple fractures and leaving her hospitalised.

When officials spoke to the woman she explained that she was a regular and would visit Bokito's enclosure around four times a week since he was four months old.

Bokito dragged the woman through a restaurant after he escaped and went on a rampage that left four injured, before being shot with a tranquilliser by zookeepers (Rob Doolaard/AFP via Getty Images)

In that time she had grown a habit of making eye contact with Bokito and smiling at him - which her husband said she had been advised not to do by a zookeeper.

In an interview with newspaper De Telegraaf, the woman later said: "If I laugh at him, he laughs back."

But according to the website, Gorilla Trek, making eye contact with a gorilla is a huge no-no.

"To mountain gorillas, any person who keeps direct eye contact with them is a challenger and an enemy who comes to destroy the family," they explain.

"Direct eye contact will therefore force the silverback to charge and fight you in order to defend his family. If you want to be peaceful with gorillas, you should avoid eye contact."

Never make eye contact with a gorilla (Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Discussing the incident, one person shared their own experience on Reddit: "I once worked in a zoo on work experience at 15. I made the briefest of eye contact with a sliverback at the back feeding part of the enclosure, (not dissimilar to silence if the lambs prison, but with fencing) that was enough to of caused it to run at me and smash against the weak looking fencing with both fists and grunting heavily.

"He then grunt called to the others, who sloped off there platforms and started trying to get me with sticks and throw hay at me, I was quickly escorted out.

"It was prob because a cute baby gorilla was bashing its chest till it fell backwards and I was watching that, and the silverback was watching me in the background.

"They are very much not to be messed with and like pretty much all other animals, not to be imprisoned for our viewing curiosity."