He weighed 476 pounds, stood six feet tall, and walked through his enclosure like he owned the place — because he did.
Ambam, a western lowland silverback gorilla at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, England, wasn’t doing tricks. He wasn’t trained. He simply decided, somewhere along the way, that two legs worked better than four — and he never looked back.

The Video That Stopped the Internet
In January 2011, animal researcher Johanna Watson posted an 18-second YouTube clip of Ambam strolling upright across his enclosure, arms swinging, chin up. The clip included a snippet of Walk Like a Man by The Four Seasons.
The video went viral almost immediately, racking up nearly six million views. Wikipedia News outlets worldwide ran the footage. Visitors flooded Port Lympne just to see it for themselves.
But behind the spectacle was something far more interesting than internet fame.

Not a Trick. A Trait.
Gorilla keeper Phil Ridges explained what was really going on: “We think he might use it to get a height advantage to look over the wall when keepers come to feed him. Ambam can also carry a lot more food if he stands and uses both hands — and walking on two feet means he doesn’t get his hands wet when it is raining.” whogivesamonkeys
In other words, Ambam wasn’t performing. He was problem-solving.
Kevin Hunt, an anthropologist at Indiana University and director of the Human Origins and Primate Evolution Lab, weighed in on the behavior. “It’s not unusual for chimps and gorillas to stand up, but they don’t usually walk very far,” he told Live Science. He noted that Ambam’s father also walked on two legs frequently — suggesting the behavior may have been learned, inherited, or both. Live Science
Keeper Ingrid Naisby, who worked with Ambam for 16 years, put it simply: “He’s always liked to stand up. It’s about getting his balance right and he’s well practiced. He has perfected it.” Blogger

What Made Ambam Genuinely Rare
Gorillas occasionally stand upright. That part isn’t unusual. What set Ambam apart was sustained bipedal walking — longer distances than experts had typically seen. He was considered one of only two famous gorillas known for this behavior, alongside Louis, a gorilla at the Philadelphia Zoo who began exhibiting the same trait in 2018. Wikipedia
Scientists noted that Ambam’s behavior may shed light on the evolutionary development of bipedalism in human ancestors. Hunt argued it supports the hypothesis that early hominins first began walking upright to free their hands for food-gathering — not simply to see farther. Live Science
A 476-pound gorilla, in a park in Kent, was quietly helping answer one of science’s oldest questions.

What We Know

Ambam was a western lowland gorilla, born in 1990 at Howletts Wild Animal Park and moved to Port Lympne at age seven
He was the largest gorilla in Port Lympne’s bachelor group, weighing 220 kg (476 lbs)
His bipedal walking was habitual, self-directed, and observed throughout his adult life
His sister Tamba and her son Kabale exhibited similar upright walking behavior
The 2011 viral video was filmed by researcher Johanna Watson and accumulated nearly 6 million views
He became an ambassador for gorilla conservation at a park that has rewilded 27 gorillas to protected areas in Congo and Gabon

The Part Most Articles Leave Out
Ambam passed away on October 1, 2022, at the age of 32, from a heart attack. The Aspinall Foundation
Animal Director Simon Jeffery said: “This is an extremely difficult loss for everyone on the team. Ambam was one of our iconic characters and we’d all watched him grow from a spirited youngster into the magnificent silverback he was. He will be sorely missed and never forgotten.” The Aspinall Foundation
He left behind no offspring — but his legacy ripples through the scientific conversation about how and why our ancestors first stood up.

Why This Still Matters
Every few months, Ambam’s video resurfaces. People share it with wonder, as if they’re seeing it for the first time. And in a way, that wonder is the point.
He wasn’t a human pretending to be an ape, or an ape pretending to be human. He was simply an animal smart enough to figure out a better way — and confident enough to use it, every single day, in the rain, on his own terms.
As the keepers at Port Lympne wrote after his death: “Every day was made brighter by walking into his house and seeing him stood up with one leg balanced gracefully in his food basket, waiting for his breakfast.” The Aspinall Foundation
Some personalities are too big to stay on four legs. Ambam was one of them.