It is the heart warming moment that a half brother and sister break off from wresting each other for a hug.

The two young western lowland gorillas, named Avatar and Jingles, were halfway through a play session in Mbeli Bai, a forest clearing in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabale Ndoki National Park.

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, which help manage the park, took the video as they observed the animals.

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The two western lowland gorillas, named Avatar and Jingles, were halfway through a play session in Mbeli Bai, a forest clearing in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabale Ndoki National Park.

Researchers from WCS’s Congo Program released touching footage of two sibling western lowland gorillas in a tender embrace.

The 11-second video was taken from an observation platform in Mbeli Bai, a forest clearing in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabale Ndoki National Park, which WCS helps manage.

The WCS researchers said it was part of a play session.

However, the gorillas play is a little rougher than the average human sibling fight.

'Gorillas are quite physical in their play behavior; they wrestle, hit, bite, but also touch, sniff, kiss and hug,' the team say.

'Hugging, like grooming, could also be a form of confirming social bonds.'

WCS works in the protected area to safeguard gorillas, forest elephants, and other wildlife from poaching.

The large (12.8 ha) natural forest clearing is located in the south-west of the Nouabalé-Ndoki national park in Northern Congo.

AVATAR AND JINGLES Jingles (left) is the youngest member of the group, born seven months before Avatar (right) Jingles was born on 13 Oct. 2014, and is the youngest member of the group. Researchers are still unsure of Jingles sex. Conan, the pair's father Avatar, the second youngest member of the group, was born on 4 Mar. 2014 and still fully dependent on his mother. The pair same the same father - Conan, a large bodied silverback with distinctive pair of veins under both eyes. Researchers named him after his cone shaped head. Advertisement

Due to the mineral rich soils and aquatic vegetation, Mbeli Bai is an attractive resource for numerous elusive mammal species including the western lowland gorilla and the African forest elephant.

A kiss from mum: The pair took breaks from their play session to interact with other grillas nearby

In 1995 researchers set up a study there to study the lowland gorilla populations because of the unique terrain that allows unobscured observation of animals that are otherwise hard to study in their dense forest habitat.

'In Mbeli bai we can individually recognize and monitor a large number of animals and therefore gain useful information on key life history traits and population dynamics to help inform conservation strategies,' the researchers say.

Since 1995, the MBS has identified over 460 gorilla individuals.

The gorillas were also seen playing with (and on) the other gorillas in the group

At current, the MBS is following 25 groups of gorillas and 13 solitary silverback males, totalling a little over 200 individuals. So far in 2017, 125 gorilla individuals visited the bai, 2 new gorilla babies were born and one new female immigrated in to the population.

Aside from gorillas, approximately 536 elephants have been identified at Mbeli, since January ’17, 3 new infants were added to the population as well as 3 young adult males.

Researchers are also at the forefront of technology, and, gorilla behaviour, proximity, social interactions and health indicators will be recorded through the Animal Observer app (Dian Fossey Fund International).

At one point one of the pair even seemed to take a bit of a nap on an older female's back

The study has also entered a partnership with Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to develop an automated individual gorilla recognition software which will potentially have many applications in camera trap studies, for example to assess abundance and density of gorillas in the wild.