Antwerp Zoo visit and gorilla empathy

Yesterday I took the boys to the zoo. They particularly liked the gorilla. The boys sat down on the ledge right next to the glass cage, and the gorilla came over and sat down next to them, putting her hand up on the window. There was only 5 cm between the boys & the gorilla, all of it glass. They sat there for a long time, talking to her, looking. On our way home the oldest boy said “the gorilla is sad because he has to live in a cage” and the youngest one expressed disappointment over the fact that the gorilla had not been running around beating herself over the chest, like King Kong.

She did look sad, just passively sitting there, watching the zoo visitors. The boys were so excited to go to the zoo and see all the animals, they had such a great time, but the oldest one still had managed to pick up on the gorilla’s sentiment. I was touched by the empathy.

By Lovain