Two female gorillas, Ndakazi and Ndeze, who were orphaned when poachers killed their parents in 2007, have been captured posing in uncannily humanlike postures for a selfie with rangers.
The photo was taken by ranger Mathieu Shamavu at a gorilla orphanage in Virunga National Park, DR Congo and was captioned ‘Another day at the office…’ when it was posted to the Elite Antipoaching Units and Combat Trackers Facebook page and, unsurprisingly, it went viral.
According to BBC Newsday, the park’s deputy director said that ‘they had learned to imitate their carers, who have looked after them since they were found. The gorillas think of the rangers as their parents.’
A different photo was taken by another ranger, Patrick Sadiki, and once again features Ndakasi and another gorilla, Matabishi.
Virunga National Park posted the image of the two standing gorillas on its Instagram page, commenting that ‘most primates are comfortable walking upright (bipedalism) for short bursts of time,’ and that Ndakazi and Ndeze ‘are always acting cheeky, so this was the perfect shot of their personalities.’
More than 600 rangers try and protect the estimated 1,000 mountain gorillas that live within the park, in an area where conflict with poachers is high.
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