WildlifeDirect shares news on the Great Apes Blog of Kwita Izina, Rwanda‘s annual celebration in which mountain gorillas born during the previous 12 months receive their names.
Volunteers in gorilla suits, pictured above, stood in for the baby gorillas receiving names during the ceremony.
Other videos on the official Kwita Izina YouTube channel include adorable footage of one of the young gorillas to be named at the ceremony beating his chest in the wild the day before.
The event drew a crowd of notables—including Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza and long-time Columbus Zoo director Jack Hanna—to Kinigi near the country’s Volcanoes National Park, home to many of the world’s remaining (and highly endangered) wild mountain gorillas.
Read more about Kwita Izina on the Great Apes Blog.
Photograph by Julie Ghrist