Does a viral video authentically capture a gorilla lifting a baby to bring it to its mother? No, that's not true: A search for the clip's origin revealed it was initially published by an account specializing in AI generated content. A closer look at the post showed several abnormalities that are generally associated with the videos created by algorithms, not humans.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July 6, 2025. It opened:
The gorilla's gentle side: he won't even touch the baby girl 🥺🦍
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The clip originated from a reel (archived here) published on YouTube on June 29, 2025, under the title:
Zoo Gorilla Gives Baby Back To Mother.
That account's self-description (archived here) disclosed that what it publishes is not authentic human-recorded footage:
(Source: YouTube screenshot by Lead Stories)
A closer look at the clip reveals several irregularities commonly seen in AI generated videos.
For example, the mother's hand has three fingers (and a thumb), and those fingers don't naturally bend as she leans toward the baby to hug it:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
Seconds later, we see the mother's hand dissolving:
(Source: X screenshots by Lead Stories)
Furthermore, the video displays the levitation effect as shadows disappear under both feet of the gorilla and the right baby's foot, making them seem to be floating in the air, not walking on solid ground:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
Last but not least, at the moment of the hug with the mother, the baby's head seems to be either unnaturally turned 180 degrees away from the camera or turned straight to the camera, revealing rather fantastic facial features:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
A Google search across news websites for the keywords seen here (archived here) showed a fact check by Factly that also reviewed the same claim.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks discussing AI generated content can be found here.
