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​Photographer Captures Moment A Gorilla Recreates Iconic Braveheart Scene

​Photographer Captures Moment A Gorilla Recreates Iconic Braveheart Scene

You can practically hear him yelling: “They may take away our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOMMMMM!”

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

A gorilla has been photographed living out his very own Braveheart fantasy, looking poised and ready for battle as he roamed around his enclosure in a zoo.

Western lowland gorilla Kivu was spotted stomping around his home at Paignton Zoo, Devon, clutching a large stick - at one point lurching forwards towards the camera with his mouth open, as if set for war.

Yep, the 400lb beast wouldn't look out of place in 1995 war flick Braveheart, in which Mel Gibson starred as 13th- century Scottish warrior Wiliam Wallace.

Kivu at Paignton Zoo, Devon.
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Kivu was then see picking up the stick again and chucking it into a moat... You can practically hear him yelling: "They may take away our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOMMMMM!"

The hilarious sequence of photos, captured last week, are the genius of a regular visitor to the zoo, who said: "At the afternoon talk they sometimes display their dominance to each other, which is good to watch.

"Kivu found a big stick and decided to display, or charge, with it.

"Later he picked up the stick again and threw it underarm into the moat surrounding their island."

Kivu, 16, arrived at the zoo in 2016, and is described as a very smart gorilla who loves showing off.

Kivu eventually lobbed his stick into a moat.
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Paignton Zoo provides a place for them to grow up in a social environment, and has a bachelor group of Western lowland gorillas which are a critically endangered species.

Some of them may go on to become the dominant males in bachelor or family groups in other collections as part of the European breeding programme.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the western lowland gorilla is the most widespread of all gorilla subspecies, with populations found in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea, as well as in large areas in Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

The exact number of western lowland gorillas isn't known as many live in some of the more remote rainforests, but it is believed that significant populations still exist.

However, these numbers still haven't protected the global population, as the WWF states numbers have declined by more than 60 per cent over the last 20-25 years thanks to poaching and disease.

"Even if all of the threats to western lowland gorillas were removed, scientists calculate that the population would require some 75 years to recover," the WWF website explains.

Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/StoryTrender

Topics: News, UK, Animals