The new barrier is 42 inches high with wood beams at the top and bottom and knotted rope netting, according to our news partner WCPO 9 On Your Side.
The Cincinnati Zoo previously said it would review its safety barriers at the exhibit, which has been closed since Saturday when a 3-year-old boy climbed a barrier and fell into the exhibit.
Zoo staffers shot and killed an endangered 17-year-old western lowland gorilla named Harambe after concluding the boy's life was in danger.
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after a 3-year-old boy plunged into a gorilla exhibit, where a 400-pound gorilla picked him up and dragged him around the enclosure.
The zoo said it would look at whether it needs to reinforce the barriers even though it considers the enclosure more secure than what’s required.
“The exhibit is safe, the barrier is safe,” said zoo director Thane Maynard, who noted the exhibit is routinely checked by federal inspectors and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which also plans to investigate what happened.
The breach, the zoo director said, was the first time a visitor had entered the zoo’s Gorilla World, which opened in 1978 and was billed as the first “bar-less” outdoor gorilla habitat in the nation.
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