Touched by a Wild Mountain Gorilla
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Look what I've found: It's a human! The WILD mountain gorillas who groom the tourists
By Pamela Owen
24th December 2011
There's nothing like a stroll with the children. But as any dad knows, they can be proper little monkeys when they come across a stranger.
This baby gorilla got a touch overfamiliar when he spotted a tourist sitting by the path of a camp in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park.
Perhaps mistaking him, because of his black T-shirt, for one of his own species, he wanders up, puts a hand on the holidaymaker’s knee and gives him a sniff.
Submissive: John is unaware of just how close the large silverback is
Feel for it: One of the babies is so curious it decides to climb up a nearby tree to get a better look
Happy he’s a friend, he then moves up behind the man and snatches a kiss. Under the watchful eye of their giant silverback father, other youngsters from the band then join in, petting and grooming the American, known only as John.
The images were caught on video, which has been viewed 430,000 times on YouTube.
It starts with John sitting by the side of a path filming gorillas as they wander among other tourists in the camp – something which is said to happen only a few times a year.
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Gimme a kiss: The female comes up to John and licks his hear
I don't bite! The tourist is shocked as the gorilla muzzles his neck
Enough: The silverback decides that it is time to go and nudges the youngster before they all head off
As one of the babies begins to touch him, John’s face lights up and he mouths, ‘I just feel like one of the gang’ and later: ‘My heart is racing.’
The apes, which can grow up to 6ft tall and weigh up to 440lb, can easily kill a human with one blow of their powerful arms. They are mostly gentle giants but, if threatened, the males can become aggressive.
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www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hg2hCuDy2wg
Uploaded on Dec 17, 2011
An amazing chance encounter with a troop of wild mountain gorillas near Bwindi National Park, Uganda
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Wonder why the female gorilla didn't gives him a love bite as souvinir?
Anyway, its heartwarming to see gorillas from the wild behaving so gentle
