If you, for whatever reason, think it's a good idea to run around in a gorilla costume, let this be a tale of warning: Earlier this week, a veterinarian at a zoo in Spain reportedly shot an employee dressed in an ape suit after confusing him for a real gorilla.

The incident happened during a practice drill at Loro Parque, a zoo in Tenerife, Spain.

From The Dodo:

The employee was running around the park mimicking an escaped gorilla when the veterinarian spied him and, apparently uninformed about the drill, shot him in the leg with a tranquilizer dose meant to take down a 400-pound gorilla. The employee had an allergic reaction to the dose and was taken to University Hospital of the Canary Islands, where he is in serious condition.

It should be noted that there's some translation-related confusion about the story. According to Google Translate's take on the original La Opinion article, the zoo employee was in a "gorilla suit to give greater accuracy to drill" when the vet "opened fire with a narcotic dart that struck the victim in the leg that fell slumped to the ground just at the time he was in the cage of apes," though, the article later adds, when "the victim was located he was in his underwear." So, either he took off the suit after he was shot OR he was just hanging out in a gorilla cage in his underwear. Either way, weird story.

[Image via Shutterstock]