When I visit the zoo I find myself wondering whether the animals know they are being watched. Some of them are predators (and most of them are prey) so they must they must have sense of being seen. But do they know they are being watched?
If any of them do, I suspect it would be the gorillas. Quite often they seem as entertained by the humans passing by their enclosure as the humans seem with them. We point; we laugh; we put these little black boxes in front of our faces, which make a strange clicking sound.
But the most unnerving thing about the gorillas is that they sometimes seem to make eye contact. It feels like more than a passing glance. It feels like you are being examined.
So it was here as I took this photo of a gorilla. And I felt, in some small way, ashamed.