Melanie Masino, the documentary filmmaker and former director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute who we featured last week in the White River Living cover story, went up against a feisty chimp showing off his pitching skills Wednesday at the Little Rock Zoo.
For a minute or so, Masino went down for the count, as she was hit in the left side of the face by the chimpanzee while she was escorting her child and two other kids around the Zoo. “It was such a freak thing,” Masino said. “I’ve never seen chimps so active and on such a hot day. They were doing flips off rocks and things. One, probably the dominant male of the bunch, landed after one flip and walked back to his tree and did another flip. The next thing I knew I was waking up on the ground with blood all over my face coming from my head. “None of us saw a rock in the chimp’s hand before it happened, but he had grabbed a softball-sized rock and nailed me in the left eye. It’s bruised. I’ve got a shiner today.”
After a CT scan at local hospital, Masino was deemed OK and sent home. “I’m fine now. I’m just so glad one of the kids didn’t get hit. I’ve never been hit in the head like that.”