Gorillas Mate Face To Face, Cheek to Cheek

]A pair of wild western lowland gorillas in Africa have surprised researchers by engaging in face-to-face mating, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced today.

Though the behavior had been observed before in mountain gorillas, it had never before been seen in the lowland gorilla subspecies—and had never before been photographed in the wild.

Perhaps just as surprising, the female in the photographs—Leah, named after the Star Wars princess—is also the first gorilla seen using a tool in the wild.

Conservation biologist Thomas Breuer took the mating photographs in 2005, but the images are only now being released to the public.

Breuer, of Germany's Max Planck Institute and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, never expected to observe such a sight.

"Seeing the similarity between humans and gorillas in this respect is fascinating," he said.