Robotic Spy Designed To Look And Act Like A Young Gorilla Records The Giant Apes Farting And Singing

Filmmakers at John Downer Productions came up with a genius way to record animals in their natural habitat. They employed lifelike robots made to resemble the creatures and had these “ultra-realistic animatronic” spies to go undercover and capture unique animal behavior from up close. One of these secret agents, a gorilla, became a true star of the show. As it was embedded in the wild, it did such a wonderful job of infiltrating the giant apes, it came back with some never-before-seen footage of these guys singing. And farting.

Image credits: John Downer Productions

“Firstly, we need to work out what spy animals would be best to film the animal. So, for example, it would not be a good idea to make a spy Silverback Mountain gorilla, as this could be seen as too much of a threat to the real mountain gorillas. Therefore, we went with a baby gorilla,” filmmaker Matt Gordon explained.

Image credits: John Downer Productions

Watch the spy gorilla in action

Image credits: John Downer Productions

Even though it was the first time humans recorded the apes singing, we’ve already known about it. A 2016 study published in PLOS ONE detailed this “food-calling”, describing the great apes making vocal sounds when gathering and eating food, with pitches and durations depending on the quantity and quality of the food and the audience.

Image credits: John Downer Productions

The study authors stated that this discovery provides an interesting viewpoint on the evolution of language and vocal communication in general. The filmmakers gave the phenomenon a poetic name — chorus of appreciation.