Meet the most handsome gorilla in the world

When you think of someone who embodies all that it means to be “handsome,” you think of a human being, right? Well, now when you think of “handsome” someone else might jump to mind, even though he’s not a human — but he is a distant cousin. Meet Shabani, the gorilla who’s quickly gaining admires because of his handsome features.

Shabani grew up in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in Australia, but now lives in Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya, Japan, so he’s clearly quite the world traveler. He’s been living there since 2007, but has only started gaining attention after Twitter noticed him, and dubbed him, “too handsome.” And it’s like, how are we NOT going to click on some pictures of a gorilla that is considered, “too handsome?” From there, his popularity has only grown more and more.

Employees at Higashiyama Zoo have noticed an increase in attendance, especially female visitors, who are trying to get a glimpse of Shabani. I mean, yeah, I can see it, he does have quite striking features, especially for a gorilla. But he’s no [insert your own top pick for handsome celebrity here].

For all those who have taken a strong liking Shabani, bad news: He’s actually taken. Shabani has two different gorilla wives, Ai and Nene, and two gorilla children, Kiyomasi and Annie. The zoo claims that he is an “excellent father” to both of them, and isn’t fazed by his new found celebrity status.

“He seems to have noticed his new popularity,” Takayushi Ishikawa, a zoo spokesperson, told CNN, “but he’s kept it very cool.”

Don’t know if this means we’ll see him grace the cover of People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” issue anytime soon, but stranger things have happened.

(Images via Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens, here, and here.)