Photo by Nikki Martin Pfeffer.
Yesterday the Saint Louis Zoo shared a photo on Facebook that a visitor had taken of one of its gorillas. All normal enough — except this particular gorilla seemed to feel that the heat in this G-rated establishment needed to be turned up a notch for his photo.
Nikki Martin Pfeffer was visiting the zoo on June 20th with her husband and two kids to celebrate her daughter's ninth birthday when she snapped a pic of gorilla Bakari in the primate house. The western lowland gorilla generously lent his looks to the camera with a strikingly, er, seductive pose.
The zoo shared the photo with a spot-on caption — "He came in like a wrecking ball." And it was basically the most perfect thing we saw all week.
Pfeffer, a professional photographer based in Belleville, tells the RFT that the gorillas quickly grabbed her family's attention upon entering the primate house.
"When Bakari started climbing the rope that's attached to the barrel in the picture, that's when I grabbed my camera," Pfeffer says. "He was sporting all kinds of maneuvers and looking back to see if the crowd was watching. Then he climbed down and laid on the barrel and struck that absolutely perfect pose."
Pfeffer says that Bakari is definitely a star in her family's book — and they're not the only ones. At the moment, the zoo's Facebook share of the photo has 4,800 likes, 416 shares and 106 comments, including Bakari's nomination as a Sports Illustrated cover model.
Look out, Bakari. GQ may be calling soon.
