Gorilla Youngster Preciously Plays With Baby Brother

Meet the Lope the cheeky gorilla youngster from the Twycross Zoo in England. Enjoy as he gets chased all around his enclosure by his little brother Shufai. If you think that is cute, wait until you see both of them at the end of the video!

Lope is a 4-year-old western lowland gorilla, a species that is labeled as critical on the IUCN list. He is the the second child of 22-year-old mother Ozala and 24-year-old dad Oumbi. Shufai, on the other hand, is his first younger brother, which made headlines last year on his birth.

The 4- and 1-year-old, respectively, can be seen running around their enclosure in Twycross, just like human siblings would. It is an important aspect of a gorilla youngers’s behavior. Mom is close by to keep a watchful eye on the two sons, but she will never intervene, because this is also how they learn about the hierarchy in the troop.

These rare primates are usually found in dense rainforests and swamps in Central Africa – but their populations in the wild have declined by more than 60% in the past two decades. Western lowland gorillas have been pushed to the brink of extinction by humans clearing their forests for timber, oil and gas, as well as poaching the animals for bushmeat and the illegal pet trade.