Watch: Man Releases Video Showing His Toddler Playing with a Gorilla

Quite a while ago (about 20 years back, to be more precise), one man saw fit to allow his 18-month-old daughter spend some quality time with a 300lb gorilla, playing and tossing straws at each other in the latter's enclosure.

All the while, Damian Aspinall pointed a camera at toddler Tansy and the oversized primate, thus succeeding to shoot one of the most controversial family films known to the online community thus far.

The fact that this video could stir some very profound objections to Damian's (lack of) parenting skill is precisely what kept him from releasing this footage to the general public throughout the past 20 years.

However, as he points out in one of the interviews following the online community's becoming acquainted with this home movie, “‘This is a family video. Before I wouldn’t have released it but now, with the Internet it is different, I don’t care if I get a bit of stick because I think the gorillas get a good deal out of it.”

“If we can show millions of people how gentle and noble and wonderful these animals are, then I think we’re doing the gorillas a service. I’m happy to take the stick for that,” he went on to argue.

Daughter Tansy, now age 23, supports her father's views on this issue and argues that, “(...) gorillas are such wonderful, gentle animals and they’re so human-like.”

Truth be told, this video is bound to help gorillas score some much needed points as far as raising awareness with respect to their being an endangered species is concerned.

Especially seeing how, as we previously reported, this particular primate species is going through some very harsh times as a result of human conflicts which end up impacting on their population.

Just for the record, Damian Aspinall is actively involved in helping out various animal species escape extinction, and has experience in dealing with creatures others might consider dangerous.

Therefore, some could argue that he was well in control of the situation.

Those wishing to find out why it is that the gorilla did nothing to harm the little girl, but why no adult should ever try to play with a primate belonging to this species in the same ways as Tansy did when she was 18 months old, can watch the video below, which provides some insights into why some animals seem to really like human children.