For those of you who haven't already had the feel-good pleasure of feasting your eyes upon the following images either by email or by a received link, be prepared to be both reduced to a mush and also blown away by the human parallels displayed.

As the associated story goes, when the white tiger cub pair (Mitra and Shiva) were born during Hurricane Hannah, the flooding of their sanctuary forced their separation from their mother. They ended up at South Carolina's "The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS)" under the care of infant animal care giver China and her 2 year old chimpanzee companion, Anjana.

Anjana has been by China's side since she was born and has therefore naturally learned the ropes when it comes to the caring for and raising of baby animals. Having already helped raise leopards, lions, orangutans, Anjana's maternal behaviour has resulted in her obvious close bond with the white tiger cubs.

Cue the awwwwwwww's...

The thing that really gets me about these pictures, taken by Barry Bland, is the incredible visual parallels you can draw between Anjana’s postures, expressions and apparent emotions, to that of a human. I’m blown away.

But wait… we’re all descendants of that naked couple that ran around with the snake and that apple tree and all that right??? Pffffffffft.

Images // barrybland.typepad.com

The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species // tigerfriends.com

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