The first thing that strikes you about a mountain gorilla is just how human their actions are. After all, they have a lot in common with us in terms of DNA. So it shouldn't have surprised me that the preferred Friday afternoon routine of the young males is to lie around and get drunk (Sooo much in common....).
They achieve this by ingesting the alcoholic sap from fermenting bamboo shoots. The local guides know it as a gorilla shandy. This particular teenager, having downed a few shoots, threw his empties down in front of him (you can see the remnants in the picture) and laid into a few forest bar snacks- stripping the outer layers with his teeth to get to the goodness within. Not unlike me opening a pack of scampi fries.
Having got himself well and truly sozzled, he then lay there for a while, before staggering back to join the gang (and presumably tell them how much he loved them). All it needed was an enterprising golden monkey with a kebab van and it would have been just like a weekend in South London...sort of.
No comments:
Post a Comment