Thursday, June 06, 2013

Pangani Forest Exploration Trail 3
























Pangani Forest Exploration Trail 3

I saved the gorilla photos for last because they were my favourite group of all that I took in the Animal Kingdom at Disney World. When I reached the Western Lowland Gorilla enclosure I was disappointed because a small crowd of people were gathered around the glass and I couldn't even see the large gorilla. I walked a little farther and there were too many reflections to make photos. But luckily I have a good deal of patience and when the opportunity arose, I moved into the crowd and got closer to the window.

At first the gorilla just stayed very still and looked very bored. Occasionally he would move his hand to brush away a fly and I had concluded I wasn't going to get a decent photo. Then it seemed to pick up on my thoughts and glanced sideways a couple of times. Then, to my surprise it started to yawn and I shot a quick sequence as it showed it's huge teeth which I hadn't realize they would be so long and sharp.

The yawn over, it then turned its head and looked directly at me for around 30 seconds, looked away, got up and walked away. My patience had paid off. Many people came and left while I observed this beautiful animal and they saw only a bored, disgruntled old gorilla. But I was lucky enough to capture a few decent images of him.

We did see other gorillas along the trail.  We share 98% of our DNA so they are close relatives of human beings. I wondered what they thought of all the people walking by staring at them, making sounds (yes, several people were making ape-like sounds) and taking photos. 


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3 comments:

William F Matthews said...

Excellent pictures of the gorillas!

K. Bruce Lane - Photo of the Day said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
K. Bruce Lane - Photo of the Day said...

Thanks William,

I appreciate your feedback on my Blog posts, though I don't always get a chance to respond.

I was pleased with the gorilla photos and was lucky to have stayed there a while. If I had moved on with the crowds, I would have missed these shots.

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