Gorilladame trifft auf Katzenbabys

Gorilladame Koko, die von der The Gorilla Foundation betreut wird, hatte zu ihrem letzten Geburtstag ungewöhnliche Gratulanten. Ein paar Katzenbabys kamen sie besuchen. Es ist faszinierend zu sehen, wie sanft die Gorilladame mit den Katzen hantiert.

Koko got her birthday wish this July 4th — not only did one kitten come to visit, but a whole litter. Koko fell in love with one, and the other fell in love with her. Koko has adopted these two kittens into her family, and it has energized her world.

Not only have Koko’s maternal and play instincts kicked in, but she is signing more to her caregivers and generating new content everyday that can be used by The Gorilla Foundation to create empathy fro great apes. This can have significant benefits to both endangered free-living great apes and those in captive environments, by encouraging the development of 2-way communication with their caregivers (which Koko has had since she was a baby).

(Direktlink, via Cute Overload)