If you're having trouble tearing your kid away
from his iPhone, just be thankful he's not a 400-pound ape.
Footage taken at Kentucky’s Louisville Zoo shows
Jelani, a young male silverback gorilla, seemingly enthralled by a zoo
visitor’s smartphone, nodding as the boy shows him each new image. Apparently,
Jelani is known for his interest in technology -- his biography on the
zoo’s website says “he is a laid-back individual and likes to look at cellphone
photos and videos."
Since video editor Paul Ross uploaded the footage to YouTube earlier this
month, the Internet has become as glued to the video as Jelani is to his
visitor’s photographs.
But some viewers see the video as bittersweet,
since Jelani is, after all, in captivity and not out in the wild. Ross
addressed this point in an updated description of his YouTube video:
Please note that this gorilla (I believe he is
named Jelani) is housed in an award winning 4 acre gorilla sanctuary in the
Louisville Zoo. He is a Western Lowland Gorilla, a species classified as
"critically endangered" by the I.U.C.N.
The Louisville Zoo works hard to provide Jelani
and his group with great nutrition, a stimulating and wide open environment,
medicine and a chance and hopefully through awareness and captive breeding
they'll help move this beautiful species off that endangered list.
Ross recommends that anyone who feels moved by
the video should learn more about the zoo's gorilla sanctuary and find out
what they can do to help the great apes.
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