Playful mangabeys tease rolling gorillas. A zookeeper at Royal Burgers' Zoo captured footage of engaging play behaviour between western gorillas and golden-bellied mangabeys this week. The two African primate species share an outdoor enclosure in the Arnhem zoo, and both species regularly exhibit play fighting, particularly the younger animals.
The behaviour seen in the video is unmistakeably recognisable as play. The golden-bellied mangabey clearly communicates that it is out for play and means no harm. After some initial reluctance, the gorillas soon join in the challenging play behaviour and can even be seen doing some roly-polys. The silverback, whose main job is being the peacekeeper of the troop, shows not even the slightest interest in the proceedings. If there was even a hint of aggression towards one of his troop members, he would immediately intervene to calm the situation. The leader of the gorilla troop is fully aware that there are only wild games afoot here and that the gorillas do not find the rambunctious mangabeys annoying but rather amusing.
11 авг 2021
