[ It sounds to me like the Gorillia was just reacting to the fact that the trainers around her were upset about something and was mimicking their reactions. I seriously doubt she remembered a human she met once a decade before and could grasp the fact that the particular human had died and was feeling sad over it. ]
I disagree, I don’t think the gorilla was “Mimicing” the trainer, I think the Gorilla was “Empathizing” with the trainer. Big difference, Gorillas and the great apes do have near human like emotion, but not intelligence. It is a lot like if a parent is upset even if they try to hjide it from their children the child can pick up emotional cues and will become upset themselves. If the child was merely mimicing the parent they would not get upset..
Dogs can also empathize to a degree, I knew someoen who had a dog (a whip smart one) who normally didn’t like to get up on the couch into someone’s lap, but when their owner was distrauught, even if they were not showing it, the dog would jump into their lap.
So animals may not have a big “Intelligence IQ” but some have a high “Empathy/Emotional IQ”.
Yeah, I was going to bring up dogs as well. They seem to queue off human emotion and try to read us. Dogs seem to display emotion through attachment/separation so I would think gorillas could as well.