Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Watching the Watchers

If the eyes are the windows into the soul, then the great apes can certainly make a claim to possessing one themselves. While it's easy to anthropomorphize the actions and looks of gorillas as they go about their day in full view of dozens of gawking humans, it is in their eyes that we see something closer to us than many care to admit. There is certainly awareness in those eyes. What do they think of us, I wonder, we who snap their pictures incessantly while our children bang on the windows of their enclosure with wild abandon? Suspicion? Contempt? Resignation? Do they perceive us as dangerous and uncontrollable, like many people see them?

I don't know; but they should.

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