Gabon: This Silverback thinks this intruder in the mirror (his reflection) comes to steal his wives.

In Gabon, French photographers Anne-Marie, Xavier HUBERT-BRIERRE and their friend Michel GUISS DJOMOU installed six large mirrors (1,2 m x 2,5 m) in the jungle near Nyonié. In order to film the reaction of wild animals from different angles as they encounter their reflection, the group also installed cameras equipped with motion detectors in front of each mirror. Members of a gorilla family from this jungle come and go as they please in front of these mirrors. Just as in humans, self recognition in primates is not an innate ability. The ability to recognise one’s own reflection is the result of a training process that little by little allows the human, or primate to understand the mirror’s properties: The case of the babies, children, adolescents and mothers of this family: In the mirror each of these gorillas sees the reflections of its family members by its side, but it is also faced with one gorilla it has never seen before: its own reflection. Each gorilla attempts to get to known this nev