Gorilla Observations

Observations: There were a total of 4 Gorillas one mom and pop gorilla and 2 younger gorillas. Paul and little Frank stood out to me the most because even though they interacted minimally I could see a father and son bond. Paul was the biggest, twice as big as the mom gorilla Azizi . Paul was an interesting one, he first just sat around leaning his back on one of the trees just staring and looking around at the other gorillas and the park visitors. He sat there for about 15 min until he moved and until he sat down again but with his back on the glass separating him from us, there he continued to not socialize with the other gorillas and just watched. The two younger Gorillas, Little Frank and Ndjia pretty much had the most energy, they ran around and socialized together. They chased each other around and I could even hear them yelling at each other which seemed like their way of communicating with each other. Amused and curious at most things they would stare at the new guest who would walk in and or would pick up various objects on the ground, amused and fascinated. Every now and then the momma gorilla would go up to the young’s and start picking at their fur, there were times where she would also lick their fur, which seem as she was grooming them.

Most of the places he would go and just sit around, were under the trees, in the cave, on the glass wall and even in the pile of dirt where he would catch some sun. When he had nothing to do he would go to a section where there were dirt and he started digging. I couldn’t really see how big the whole were but there were times where he would just dig a hole and then fill it back up. Sometimes when he made holes, one of the younger Gorillas would be seen tossing or throwing something in it. Such things as orange peels, small branches and sometimes little