This is cute

[james_davis_nicoll]

And yet it's probably only a couple of seconds at any given moment from having become Timothy Treadwell: the prequel.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Gorillas (especially female and young) have a remarkably good record with human children, see e.g. the kid who fell into the gorilla enclosure at Jersey zoo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Zoo#Gorillas

Jambo was a gorilla who was born in 1961, in the Zoo Basel, Switzerland. Jambo shot to international news stardom overnight on 31 August 1986, when five year old Levan Merritt fell into the gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness. Jambo stood guard over the boy when he was unconscious, placing himself between the boy and other gorillas in what ethnologists analyze as a protective gesture. He later stroked the unconscious boy. When the boy regained consciousness and started to cry, Jambo and the other gorillas retreated, and an ambulance paramedic and two keepers rescued the boy. Most of the drama was shot on home video by Brian Le Lion, and extensively photographed by other zoo visitors. The publicity on major news channels and newspapers helped the reputations of gorillas.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't do it myself, but gorillas are pretty mellow creatures for the most part. They seem to be clever enough to realize both that young children are babies very like their own (and thus not a threat and need to be gently treated), but not actually gorillas (and thus not a potential genetic threat, which is the only real threat I'd expect, and only from silverbacks.)

Timothy Treadwell: the prequel

[suggie thames (from livejournal.com)]

There is a big damn difference between Brown Bears and gorillas