Stories3 min(s) read
Published 18:15 12 May 2021 GMT
A video showing a gorilla interacting with a human mother and her newborn has taken social media by storm.
According to Daily Mail, the touching encounter was filmed by a woman named Emmily Austin, who hails from Jefferson in Maine.
Emmily, along with her husband Michael and their five-week-old son Canyon, paid a visit to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston earlier this week and were shocked when they visited the gorilla enclosure. They were shocked beyond belief when they struck up a bond with a female gorilla called Kiki.
Take a look at the footage of the touching encounter in the video below:Footage filmed by Michael shows the moment Kiki the gorilla saw their son Canyon and pressed her face up against the glass window to get a closer look at the baby.
Kiki can be seen tapping on the window and pointing at Canyon, trying to hold the sleeping child's hand, while other bystanders can be heard in the background exclaiming in amazement.
Commenting on the sweet encounter in an interview with News Center Maine, Emmily said the 49-year-old ape stared in awe at her baby for well over five minutes with a seemingly loving expression on her face.
She recalled: "When I walked into the zoo that day, I never could’ve imagined that we would have had that experience. It was so beautiful, and we walked out just over the moon."
Meanwhile, Michael said that Emmily kept telling him that Kiki seemed to be very interested in their baby. At first, he told her that he thought she was just imagining it, but seeing the way Kiki interacted made him change his mind.
Daily Mail reports that Kiki the gorilla gave birth to her own baby, her fifth child and first son Pablo, back in October. And in the video, Kiki can be seen holding Pablo, as if the share a maternal bond with Emmily.
Michael said: "The next time she made eye contact with Kiki, she held up Canyon again and waved her over, then Kiki grabbed Pablo and put him on her leg to carry him over to us."
He added: "My wife and I both had tears in our eyes and we had several people tell us they had never witnessed something or experienced something so beautiful as this in their life."
On Twitter, a number of social media users have since reacted to the footage and shared their own thoughts on it.
One person wrote: "They have walked this EARTH LONGER THAN YOU..they understand life. It's beautiful to see her reaction."
Another added: "The level of intelligence that gorillas have is really high. Watch a couple of documentaries on@them and you will see it’s on human level."
While a third wrote: "I had the mirror experience at Washington zoo. She was holding her baby so tenderly, showing me. The baby looked into my eyes. He still holds my heart."
Another wrote: "Awesome. If that doesn’t make you feel we should do everything possible to save these animals from extinction, nothing will."
Another added: "We are the same as far as tenderness mom shows to baby."
