Who Is Studying Whom?

feywon

Well-known Member
Bretrick's post about Steve Irwin reminded me of this clip. Apparently there is some outfit that has a permanent encampment near some Mountain gorilla territory. They teach the visitors how behave so as not to pose a threat. And the guy in this clip was surprised when a family of Gorillas came calling at the encampment and took and interest and apparent liking to one man. Who, it must be noted behaved appropriately, using body language similar to what Fossey used with Gorillas, Goodall with Chimps and Galdikas did with Orangtans. There are longer clips, but this one opens with 3 young gorillas examining a man. At about 18-20 seconds the Silverback moves them just a bit 'off' him. To my eyes it is as much because he realizes it might be uncomfortable for the man as any 'fear' for his youngsters.

 

Love this, thanks for posting and perfect title for the thread, feywon! :love:
While there was glass between us my family had an interesting encounter with a Silverback at Denver Zoo. He seemed to like my then 3 yr old grandson. There was a group of middle school kids that were mocking the gorillas. Liam was just watching the animals and smiling. The Silverback came over and stood in front of Liam and they just looked at each other thru the glass. The older kids got louder, rowdier. They both glanced at the other boys.

Then the Silverback tapped the glass and and when Liam looked the gorilla gestured toward the rowdy group and then ran the couple of yards over to thump the glass loudly in front of them and assume an aggressive posture. They gasped and all backed up a couple of yards. Liam giggled. The Silverback walked back over to us and sat across from Liam again. My DD and i both felt he had wanted to warn the small quiet boy before he scared the bigger ones.
 
I recall the man saying he felt safe as long as he did not make eye contact with any of them. I saw a video yesterday of a 6-year-old boy that was walking through the woods and doing so awoke a large brown bear that began to follow him. His father was in front of him telling him not to panic and not to run. If he chose to run the bear would most likely attack him. Eventually the bear lost interest and walked away.
 
Bretrick's post about Steve Irwin reminded me of this clip. Apparently there is some outfit that has a permanent encampment near some Mountain gorilla territory. They teach the visitors how behave so as not to pose a threat. And the guy in this clip was surprised when a family of Gorillas came calling at the encampment and took and interest and apparent liking to one man. Who, it must be noted behaved appropriately, using body language similar to what Fossey used with Gorillas, Goodall with Chimps and Galdikas did with Orangtans. There are longer clips, but this one opens with 3 young gorillas examining a man. At about 18-20 seconds the Silverback moves them just a bit 'off' him. To my eyes it is as much because he realizes it might be uncomfortable for the man as any 'fear' for his youngsters.

I really enjoyed the gorilla video @feywon thanks for posting!
 

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