The rangers posted a selfie on Facebook late last week showing two orphaned female gorillas, Ndakazi and Ndeze, standing tall beside them in the Senkwekwe Center for orphaned mountain gorillas. A park official said the gorillas appeared to be imitating their caregivers, who had raised them. Virunga National Park confirmed in a Facebook post on Monday that the photo is real, saying, “Those gorilla gals are always acting cheeky so this was the perfect shot of their true personalities! Salmi said that she has never seen a wild western lowland gorilla stand simply to look around but that she has seen videos of ones in captivity standing to get attention from tourists. The question is, how do primates connect with humans in their world, and why would they want to imitate them?

Source: National Post April 23, 2019 13:07 UTC