December 21, 2011

"That dad gorilla is awesome."

"I've done exactly what he's doing on a million walks."
1) OK, we can stop and look at this thing.
2) *touch child lightly* Let's move on?
3) *sits down for the long haul*
4) *finally gets up and moves on to drag children in wake*

23 comments:

Dose of Sanity said...

That was an awesome, awesome clip, but I couldn't help but feeling it was never more than 1 second away from utter disaster.

Sorun said...

Jeez, WTF with the music. Have you ever heard a gorilla fart? Well, you still haven't.

Wince said...

Gorillas sure got a bad rap in the Planet of the Apes movies.

"Put your gentle paws on me you doggone lovable ape!"

He might want to contain his smile, however. At least with chimps, showing teeth is a sign of aggression. So much that I just saw a chimp orphanage where the staff could not smile because if the young chimps learned to smile they would almost certainly be attacked when reintroduced in the wild.

James said...

The "Impenetreble Forest" has very nice walkways.

Scott M said...

"What are you feeling right now?"

The correct answer is, apprehension. There was a damned silverback sitting behind him.

Awesome footage.

Irene said...

Don't guides in Africa tell everyone that some event or siting happens only a couple of times a year?

These gorillas seem familiar with the eco-tourists.

Dose of Sanity said...

I was apprehensive for him Scott - I noticed how VERY careful he was not to look the male in the face. That was gutsy on his part.

Geoff Matthews said...

I can't help but think that this is incredibly dangerous. Like walking up to a Moose.

Chip Ahoy said...

Guessing here, he left out the part where the gorillas left sack of opium which they smoked and then recorded an introduction.

bagoh20 said...

Any mention of politics and that Silver-back would of tore him up.

pm317 said...

I like how the big guy disdainfully throws a final sideways look at the tourist and walks on. I also liked how he motioned his kid to move on. Are we related to these guys? ;)

ricpic said...

And what if the silver back took offense? Ripped off face that's what!

Peter Hoh said...

Reminds me of the shark lady clip that made the rounds a couple months back.

At the end of the clip, she goes all Mr. Rogers on the Great White: I like you. I think we can get along very nicely.

traditionalguy said...

That was a very interesting display of family life...we just watched a natural, normal Patriarchy function.

David said...

This is good, but the film of the band of chimps with their wood and bone weapons moving out to attack and kill the other band of chimps sticks with me more and explains quite a lot about humans.

Jose_K said...

In this program you could see a male gorilla take from the hands of a belgian park guard a little orphan female gorilla . The gorilla took it without hurting Descryver, who they know. Even if he ignores his own advice: never stand up in front of the gorilla:

http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/film/108/Gorilla.html


Gorillas sure got a bad rap in the Planet of the Apes movies.
After the war of Gombe , were the chimp that got bad press. They revealed themselves as natural born killers. 30% of males dies violntly. The violence is by both sex.
And Gorllas in the Mist presented the idillic view of gorillas. I cant reconcile it with the gorillas i saw at the Monkey Jungle in Miami, but been in cages all day can make you a little angry.

Carnifex said...

To interact with wild animals is exciting, and to actually touch some is exhilarating. I've done so with whitetail a few times.

But, those gorillas had been acclimatized to humans. So impressive but not earth shattering.

And so dangerous as to be mind numbingly stupid.

I actually got to work on the gorilla compound at our local zoo. I had to disinfect to prevent giving the gorillas a disease. There was one cute little guy right beside me in a cage. Looking at me with those big brown eye's. I lifted and my hand started to reach... and caught myself from making one of the biggest mistakes in my life. Even with the eye's and expressions, and family living, these are WILD animals, and as such are unpredictable. Even the small ones are much stronger than a human, let alone the teeth. I finished up my job, and got out of there, shaking with released adrenaline from the mistake I almost made.

I would wager you couldn't have a park like this in America. Too many "animals" on the outside. Someone would do something stupid, and someone would die, and the parks animals would be blamed.

Carnifex said...

Forgot to add that even though gorillas look like big cuddlebugs, they do have big canines, and eye's in the front of their head.

They are meat eaters.

rcocean said...

Yes cute. But these are wild animals who'll rip your face off if you make the wrong move.

But LoL Gorillas, anyway.

rcocean said...

Planet of the Apes was Chimp propaganda.

Beware the beast man indeed. Look out for the Chimp, that's what I say.

Methadras said...

What a fantastic piece of footage, but the whole time i'm thinking to myself, Oh man, where have their fingers been. ugh!!!

Anonymous said...

Men in Shorts exemption due to....?

He's just walking and sitting. If he were doing this in Cheeseland he'd be ticketed for the offense.

Banshee said...

Well, it was incredibly dangerous, and I'm pretty sure that guy would rather have just watched from a safe distance. But when wild animals come right up to you, it's not safe to run and set them off, either. He did the right thing once it happened, albeit that he probably should have stilled himself a little more. Next time, he'd better learn to pick a better spot in the first place. (Of course, if your idea of a good spot coincides with the animal's idea of a good spot, this will happen.)

But then again, when incredibly dangerous things happen and it turns out all right, that's certainly something to talk about.