The curious selfie that shows gorillas standing and posing (and why should not surprise us so much)

The selfie of a ranger with two standing gorillas and his companion in the background left many people mouth open. But how strange are the posture and behavior of these animals?

The scene shows the two primates looking at the camera, one completely straight and the other, looking from behind the author of the picture as if he did not want to stay without leaving a picture.

This photo was taken in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, where the two animals arrived in July 2007. They were orphaned at the age of two and four months only after poaching of their mothers.

Deputy Park Director Innocent Mburanumwe explained this to BBC Newsday's radio program.

"This photo was taken at the facilities of the mountain gorilla orphanage."

"They grew up watching these guards look after them, so they are considered their parents," he said.

"As you can see, they look like human beings … They were very curious to see a car pbading near the barrier, it was the first time that they were seeing a car near the fence."

Curious gorillas

But what unusual is the right pose in which these gorillas appear?

"What you see in this photo does not happen normally," said Mburanumwe, who said he saw the gorillas standing on two other occasions.

"When they are very curious, they have to get up to see what they have to do."

The deputy director of the park believes that this behavior is a sign of how gorillas learn from human beings and that they "imitate" them to "learn to be like them".

Alan Goodall, a gorilla biologist, rejects this idea.

"They learned something that they naturally do every day when they are free: they stand up," he told BBC Mundo.

"They do it to have food, to see better over the vegetation, to impress others when they shine or to play and to fight the chest!"

Unspoken

Goodall, who has studied several groups of this species closely, felt that the photo is "fantastic" and that the left gorilla is erected "in a much more vertical way than I have ever seen it. ".

But, in his opinion, the photo does not seem very spontaneous.

"I suspect that he was armed – perhaps one of the many attempts – to obtain the best composition," said the scientist, who insisted that he "n & # 39; did not say that "pejoratively".

"For me, it is very obvious that [los gorilas] they did it several times, so he decided to take a picture of that. "

"But the end result is excellent!"

As Goodall explained, gorillas are able to walk bipeds, although the arrangement of their hip and femur does not allow them to stand up.

According to the expert, the fact that both people look at the camera can be explained by the fact that gorillas are very interested in reflections in mirrors or screens.

"They see the reflections in video or photo cameras or something similar and often they are attracted by them … They look directly at the camera, not the ranger or elsewhere, but the camera".

A sanctuary for orphaned gorillas

The gorillas in the photo grew up in the Senkwekwe Center, a Virunga facility featured on its website as the only "sanctuary for the care of mountain gorillas orphaned by poaching or conflict".

The Democratic Republic of Congo is involved in a conflict between the government and several armed groups. Many of them operate in the nature park and are often exposed to poaching.

The ideal, Goodall recalled, is that these animals are reintegrated into their natural habitat in adulthood: "But the problems are many."

One of them is that, having been raised by humans, they are "too accustomed", which, according to the expert, should have been avoided, because once released, they could bring them to seek contact with other groups so, end up "killed".

However, it is difficult to find a solution. In the park, there are already groups of wild gorillas that can accept them but also face them.

Goodall thinks that the problem with orphaned gorillas once in adulthood is still to be solved.

What he is sure of is the "dedication" of the park workers despite the fact that they "earn very little money".

In addition to taking risks: five rangers Virunga were killed last year in an ambush. Since 1996, more than 130 people have suffered the same fate.

"It's a great photo and the photographer deserves a lot of money for the rights … and sharing with the gorillas!"

By
Stefania Gozzer