Wild Gorillas Reunited With Little Girl Recognize Her as an Adult (WATCH)

A UK conservationist who raised a pair of Western lowland gorillas in Kent, England went looking for them eleven years after they were reintroduced into the wild of Gabon, West Africa. He wondered if the pair would recognize him or his daughter, Tansy, who was just a child when she last played with the animals.

For the past 15 years the Aspinall foundation has been reintroducing captive gorillas back into the wild on their million acres of jungle in West Africa. But would these now-wild gorillas recognize Damian Aspinall or the girl who had grown up?

Damian and Tansy were thrilled when, after many hours of calling out to Djalta and Bimms from a boat on the river, they both appeared and clearly did recognize them.

A video shows the pair fondly greeting their human friends and being especially gentle with the woman in their midst.

“It was fantastic to see the greeting I got,” says Damian, who runs Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury. “I felt such love from them.”

“When it was time to leave, they held onto Tansy and you could see they didn’t want her to go.”

(WATCH the video below – Learn More about the Aspinall Foundation)