Zoolander: Shabani the Handsome Gorilla


Ready for the weirdest game of 'Hot or Not' you've ever played?

Okay, does anyone else think this gorilla is quite attractive?

Quite a lot of women in Japan do. In fact Shabani, who lives at the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens has caused a flurry of stories because the ladies find him so handsome.

CNN says about 100 admirers at a time surround his enclosure and that they call out to him, like concert goers to a pop star.

(The image above came from Australia's NineMSN Pickle page, via @hapyyuka on Twitter). 

Leave it to Japan,where the young population is famously apathetic about sex and dating to make a heart throb out of member of another species. Just throw it on the giant pile of reasons that Japan is fascinating and I want to go to there.

The BBC’s “Shabani: The Making of a Metrosexual Gorilla.” let's us know that the model primate is in a May-December relationship - his “wife” is 24 years his senior (hooray for older ladies). It also has helpful tips on the slang Japanese women use to describe him, including “ikemen,” a good-looking guy and “ikuman,” a doting dad. Apparently Shabani is that, too.

All he needs is money and he's the Gomez Addams of gorillas. The guy has got it all.

Anyway, I can’t help being charmed by the handsome gorilla and the ladies who love him. Maybe he’ll use his celebrity to bring some attention to gorillas worldwide who are endangered whose futures don’t look so great.

 (above right, gorilla in Uganda, photo from Wikimedia Commons)

As for Shabari’s future certainly there will be a spread in GQ - Gorilla Quarterly. Maybe even a music video. In the meantime check out the one below.

Ladies...you're welcome.





UPDATE: And if they give him a music video one day, well, we gotcher song right here:











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