By Aimee Braniff Cree
**WITH FULL PERMISSIONS**
AMUSING IMAGES of a showoff British gorilla modellin g for the lens by flexing his muscles have been captured.
Images show twenty six year-old silverback gorilla Bukavu flexing his massive muscles before emulating Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker and finishing his personalised photo shoot off with a perfect catalogue model pose.
Gorillas live in groups called troops. Troops tend to be made of one adult male or silverback, with a harem of multiple adult females and their offspring. However, multiple-male troops also exist.
A silverback is typically more than 12 years of age, and is named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back, which comes with maturity.
Silverbacks have large canine teeth that also come with maturity.
The silverback is the centre of the troop’s attention, making all the decisions, mediating conflicts, determining the movements of the group, leading the others to feeding sites, and taking responsibility for the safety and well-being of the troop.
These images were taken by photographer Gary Cox (53) from Manchester, England.
Gary captured twenty year-old silverback gorilla Bukavu at Blackpool Zoo, England on his Canon 80D camera.
“I was observing Bukavu the silverback gorilla and he appeared to be showing off for the camera by flexing his muscles. I was so pleased to have captured this moment,” said Gary.
“Gorillas are very unpredictable and their actions can be scarily human. However, I have not seen them seemingly flex their muscles before.
“It is always great to capture animals doing something unpredictable and out of the ordinary. It makes it all worthwhile and one of the reasons I love photography.
“It’s the unexpected that maintains my interest. If you watch long enough and have patience you can be rewarded with images that are something special.
“Gorillas are great subjects because they have such individual personalities and their incredible expressions highlight this perfectly. Their features are so strong that the camera basically loves them.”
ENDS
