Reported by: Shannon Kettler
Web produced by: Jessica Noll
A first-time trip to the Cincinnati Zoo ended up being one to remember for a Louisville, Ky., visitor before he even made it to the entrance.
In the parking lot, Noel Green came face to face with a white-handed gibbon named Euell.
Zoo spokesman Chad Yelton says that the 37-year-old member of the ape family got out of the Jungle Trails exhibit by swinging from branch to branch from tree to tree, and eventually made it several hundred feet from the exhibit and into the parking lot.
That's where Green and Euell came across each other.
Yelton says Euell bit Green on the leg while the man was trying to keep the animal from getting hurt.
Something some visitors say they would never attempt.
"I would not try to stop a gibbon it would just be too crazy. That's nuts why would someone stop a monkey?" said Tony Bermea of Maineville.
Euell's bite wasn't severe enough to break skin and Green continued on with his visit.
Some zoo visitors made it a point to keep their distance at the Jungle Trails exhibit.
"They just seemed to be looking at us like staring at the people a little more. I noticed a few times they were looking like 'what are you doing here?' (chuckle) So we kept our distance and kept walking," said Jennifer Hart of Loveland.
The zoo spokesman says they gave Green a free pass for another visit.
As for Euell, his 10-minute free ride now has him spending time at the indoor exhibit.
First he has to be in quarantine for two weeks which the zoo says is standard procedure.
