Gorilla Carries Toddler as Father Records Encounter (Video)
A gorilla carries a toddler in a new video released on the Internet, showing the huge gorilla playing around with an 18 month old girl.
The extraordinary footage was reportedly released by conservation activist Damian Aspinall, and is thought to be more than two decades old.
In the video it is in fact Aspinall's own daughter playing with the gorilla when she was just a young girl.
Gorillas are often portrayed as strong and sometimes violent creatures, which can attack humans. However, Aspinall has stated his belief that they are at heart gentle creatures.
The British conservation activist shot the video footage 22 years ago at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent, but has only just released it. The video shows the 300-pound gorilla easily picking up his daughter and then carrying her around playfully. His daughter was just 18 months old at the time.
According to ABC News, Aspinall has decided to release the footage of his daughter Tansy now to reveal to everyone how gentle gorillas can in fact be.
Tansy seems very comfortable with the huge gorilla and can be seen patting it on its head. The gorilla in response seems quite satisfied and never looked a threat, other than its clearly huge size compared to the tiny girl.
Aspinall is a devout conservationist and the organization he works for sends endangered gorillas back to the wild into their native climate.
Gorillas have been known to attack humans, but instances of this are very rare.