5-month-old gorilla shares touching moment with toddler at Texas zoo
A sweet photo of a little girl and Gus, a 5-month-old baby western lowland gorilla, is both warming and breaking hearts on Facebook.
The photo, which was shared Monday night, shows Gus and 2-year-old Braylee pressing their palms together through glass at the Fort Worth Zoo.
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The image was posted in conjunction with a photography contest the zoo is promoting: "Share your animal encounters with us via Facebook message and we'll post some of our favorites," the post reads. And so far, much of the reception has been positive.
"Look at this little guy stealing the show," one commenter wrote.
Still, some users are lamenting that Gus remains behind glass. "Zoos are so utterly depressing," wrote a commenter on the Fox 4 News Facebook page, which shared the photo on Tuesday.
"Out of all the animals at the zoo, these make me the saddest," wrote another user.
To be sure, Gus and his family's plight is a complicated one. In the wild, western lowland gorillas are critically endangered — largely due to poaching and disease. They are also known for their incredibly slow rates of reproduction, which makes it difficult for them to recover from steep declines in population.
In December 2015, the Fort Worth Zoo celebrated Gus's birth as a "major conservation success."
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Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.
