zuraland

i am now calling gorilla world zuraland. during recent visits i have been most drawn to zura. it started when i went to the zoo for the first time with nica (a new friend then) and she was trying to photograph zura doing "her tongue thing." i had never noticed it before, but started noticing that she did it every time i'd go. first mostly when she saw nica, then she started doing it to me. its very cute, but i wondered what it meant. i wanted to make sure we weren't upsetting to her and that it wasn't a sign of aggression a a result. we asked a keeper and as well i asked my friend joanne who knows the troop well and both said zura does it for attention. the last couple times she has paid alot of attention and is just very sweet and fun to watch. she really is quite a character. i now call her princess zura ;) i like thee two pix of zura, one where she's literally laughing and smiling right after! ... i also recently saw a photo that looked like jonesy was smiling. a keeper looked are me like i was crazy to think this of the big guy, but its true. chk the turned up corners of his mouth in this pic. thats a smile!... the other day monifa was sitting against the wall near the entry to the night quarters. she looked very sad, a visible frown. i felt horrible and said softly, monifa don't be sad, give a smile. after a bit she walked over to where we were standing and looked up and smiled! its incredible that they really do understand. i missed the full capture but got a 3/4 smile snap!