You wonder why i am fascinated with gorillas? It's simple. What do you do
if you see a Shark swimming around you? What do you do if you are attacked by
a Tiger? The outcome isn't pretty, provided all you could really do is hope.
Now, your behavior really didn't have that much affect on the shark or the tiger
because if they attack you, it's safe to say that you're a goner. Please,
just hear me out. Have any of you ever seen those "worlds strongest man"
competitions? well, if you have, the winner is usually a 6 ft. 5 inch, 350 pound
monster. Now, if you squish him one foot shorter in height, and add approximately 150
pounds of raw muscle, with the exception of hair you have a gorilla. the average male silverback mountain
gorilla is about 5'8", has an armspan of 7'8" and is
upwards of 400 pounds. The large ones are over 500 pounds though. The question
is, what do you do if you are confronted with a gorilla? Imagine you are 5 feet
away from 500 pounds of muscle that could take you apart like butter. If you were
that close to a tiger, it would take one swat at you with it's paw and you'd
be down for the count. It would probably continue attacking you until it was sure you
were dead, or finished eating you. whatever! a shark isn't the best situation either.
But imagine once again that you are that close to a gorilla. you can hear it
breathing. you can hear it's rumbling growl. you can even feel the hot moist air
he is breathing out at you..... what would you do?
would you look at him? would you look at his eyes? would you turn around and run?
would you walk? would you even move? i don't think i would be able to do anything, because
i know that whatever i did, the gorilla would react to it, which could cost me my
life. what would i feel, knowing that whatever i did in the next few seconds, minutes, hours, or however
long the gorilla and i could stand in confrontation, could mean my immediate
execution. would i look into it's eyes? Hmmm? making eye contact is the universal
"lets fight" signal in the animal kingdom. on the other hand, making eye contact with this deciding
force may be the only way to live. what if you can show him in your eyes
how much you feared him, how much you didn't want to fight, how much you
respected him, or even how much you want to live. would he understand? while i am impressed with his ability to kill
this is not what fascinates me, or i'd be fascinated with tigers and sharks. no doubt tigers and sharks are mother
nature's ultimate killing machines. i am impressed more with the fact that it
can and will decide. i don't think tigers or sharks would think twice about killing, i don't
know if they even can think twice. gorilla's are one of our closest evolutionary
relatives, which makes them all the more like us, except gorillas aren't as complex thinkers
as we are. their thoughts are probably very similar to what we were thinking
at that stage of our evolutionary climb. this crucial moment when you are eye
to eye with the gorilla has to be one of the scariest things ever experiencable.
that is what is thrilling and captivating about them. you can look into a gorillas eye
and see something more than a beautiful animal or an incredible raw force,
.... you see ... i guess you can call it understanding.
email me and tell me what you think of gorillas.
Go back to my Gorilla Page
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