Advertised as a guy with ‘brooding good looks and rippling muscles’, Shabani has quickly become a tourist attraction at a Japanese zoo. Officials report that women are flocking to the zoo to have their picture taken with Shabani in frame, so they can join the social media craze of being photographed with the most ‘photogenic gorilla’ of all time.
Shabani is actually an 18-year-old silverback gorilla. Officials report he is just about 400 pounds and is definitely the most popular attraction at the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical gardens, a popular tourist attraction in Nagoya, Japan.
What’s notably special about Shabani is that he likes to pose for pictures and is known to pucker his lip or just his jaw as tourists snap their cameras. Yahoo! News reports that zoo spokesman Takayuki Ishikawa reports, “He often rests his chin on his hands and looks intently at you,” which is clearly Shabani’s way of giving an obvious nod to Humphrey Bogart.
Ishikawa also reports, “He is more buff than most gorillas and he’s at his peak physically. We’ve seen a rise in the number of female visitors — women say he’s very good-looking.” “He’s a father and he always protects and looks over his children,” “Zoo-goers think his kindness is attractive too.”
Shabani is also now being called an ‘ikemen’, which roughly translates to ‘hunk’ and sadly, this gorilla seems to have more going for himself than some human gorillas, especially as far as being there for his kids.
“He will look you in the eye and sometimes if you’re taking photos it will look like he’s posing for you like a model,” said Ishikawa. “But he’s the head of a group of five gorillas so it’s likely he’s just watching out for them and keeping an eye on you.”