Artist Reply: thank you! It was a very moving experience. Especially when the little boy did the same thing, and knew that she was sad and wanted to make her happy. That day was an amazing experience- one major part of my time spent in the Congo environment (cannot call it an exhibit, the living environment is way too great (and HUGE), and the ways that they get the gorillas to act as they would in the wild (like hiding food around the enclosure). Anyways, in one area there were several females and younger males that were coming right up to the glass and looking and craning its head around to look over the heads of people to see everyone just like the people were doing trying to see over other people... and when I put my hand up on the glass one or another would put their hand up against my hand- then turn to dance away, and as soon as people started to move away they would come back up to the glass and do the same thing.... I would say that I had the hand-touch through glass thing happen at least 30 times before I finally moved on. And that was with me deliberately using my wheelchair status to block areas in such a way that I can let people who have not gotten a chance to get up close in for a bit. Needless to say, I didn't get many pictures during that time!