Monday, January 2, 2012 3:15:48 PM
"The wise old silver-back letting the little ones observe against her better judgement it seemed. Amazing stuff"
I get what you're saying (kinda) but "against her better judgement" I`d say that the silver back was fully aware that he had nothing to fear in that situation and thus was making an understandable decision to nurture the infants curiosity by taking station close to the `camera man`. Also silver back`s are the alpha males of gorilla familys.
On a personal note, few things amaze me more than the vast differences between humans and other apes in terms of cognitive and vocal ability despite the knowledge that our genetics dictate that we are almost exactly identical. However in spite of saying that the behaviours exhibited in this video were remarkably similar in terms of being civil/gentle.