When two long-lost gorilla brothers were reunited after nearly three years apart, they exchanged handshakes, embraces, and laughs.
After being separated since 2010, the primates stunned officials at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire with an effusive display of brotherly love.
After the adult sibling was moved to London Zoo as part of a breeding scheme, Kesho and his younger brother Alf were separated.
The teary-eyed duo embraced after being reunited and appeared to share a joke, which was recorded on video.
Despite Kesho’s appearance, which had ballooned by 200 pounds, chief gorilla keeper Mark Tye claimed Alf had no trouble recognizing his sibling.
‘We weren’t sure if the brothers knew one other, but the instant they met, you could just feel the familiarity in their eyes,’ he added.
‘They were caressing one other through the cage that separated them momentarily, and there were no signs of violence.’
‘We placed them back together after 24 hours and it was as if they had never been separated.’
‘They were quite lively, and there was a lot of roughhousing on the floor, but not aggressively.’
‘That kind of infantile behavior in a silverback is pretty unique.’
Kesho was recently relocated to the new £3 million cage after his infertility prevented him from fathering a newborn gorilla.
‘They’ve built a pretty close friendship, and Kesho is actually incredibly tolerant,’ Mr Tye continued.
‘If they had been two strangers, there would have been a lot of face-to-face conflict, fighting, and yelling.’
‘However, Kesho and Alf were content to turn their backs on each other, which is a sign of trust.
‘Having an older brother to look up to and learn from is fantastic for Alf, and Kesho seemed to like being the center of attention.
‘Seeing it was incredibly fulfilling.’
The couple appears to be spending the remainder of their days in the bachelor pad enclosure, which was created up owing to the enormous number of males in the current European breeding program.
Friendships are essential to all, including gorillas….no one can argue the contrary as seeing us believing in this case. Studies clearly have proven this too.