GORILLAS IN THEIR MIDST
A glimpse into deepest primeval Africa
FEW SIGHTS ON earth are as utterly enthralling as a 200kg male gorilla standing bolt-upright with his massive chest out-thrust, flexing his gargantuan shoulders and arm muscles in a show of strength that confounds belief. I was but twenty years old, rooted to the spot in the Johannesburg zoo as I watched the world’s biggest primate grasp a motorcar tyre in his gigantic hands and twist it into a figure-eight, several times, as though it were a rubber band, then toss it aside. I was awe-struck. Mature male gorillas are up to 10 times stronger than male humans. Their bite force is around 1 300psi – twice that of a lion. Yet, paradoxically, they are peace-loving, gentle giants unless provoked or their family group is threatened. And they are almost entirely herbivorous.
FOR ME, THERE is something strangely intriguing about gorillas. Again, the word paradoxical comes to mind – they appear so human, yet at the same time, so primordial. It’s as if I’m in a time warp, gazing at the so-called missing link – it’s eerie. The knowledge that we humans share 98% of our DNA with gorillas strongly augments this impression. When I look at Victorian-era photographs of hunters posing with gorillas they’ve shot, I get a creepy feeling, as though they’ve committed homicide. It’s unsettling.
I feel no such discomfort about monkeys or baboons (which are not apes, the difference being that apes, like humans, are tailless). Gorillas, like humans, stand five to six feet tall, are mostly ground-dwellers, and often stand erect. Their gestation period is just under nine months and their babies weigh only 4lbs at birth. Moreover, gorillas have mannerisms very close to our own. They exhibit emotions such as sadness and joy, communicate with at least 16 vocal sounds, and even hum happily to themselves when eating something they really like. In captivity, they have been taught to understand and use simple sign-language.
The heaviest wild gorilla on record weighed 267kg (590lbs). The tallest, killed in the Congo in 1938, measured
1.95m (6 feet 5 inches), weight 219kg, chest circumference 1.98m, armspread 2.7m. In captivity, gorillas can weigh as much as 310kg (683lbs).
It seems gorillas may have been recorded as early as 450BC when a Carthaginian navigator named Hanno sailed down Africa’s west coast. During a shore-stop, he glimpsed a hairy, humansized creature which the African tribesmen called a ‘gorilla’. He asked the meaning of this word and they replied “hairy person”. His written record (from which the name stems) indicates that he was uncertain whether the creature he saw was human or animal.
A 16th century English sailor, Andrew Battel, was captured and held by Portuguese in West Africa. Later, he told of two different man-like apes (by description gorillas and chimpanzees) that would visit their campfire when it was unattended.
From 1855 – 1859, French naturalist Paul Du Chaillu (who discovered the diminutive Pygmy people of the equatorial forests) shot gorillas in Gabon, and delivered the skins and skeletons to the British Museum. These were the western lowland subspecies (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Gorillas are divided into two subspecies, western and eastern, and further into lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas. Mountain gorillas are taller and have longer hair due to their cold environment. The hair on the backs of mature males turns silver-grey, hence their title ‘silverbacks’. Their lifespan in the wild is 35 to 40 years.
THE MOUNTAIN GORILLA ( G. beringei beringei) was discovered only in 1902, by Capt Robert von Beringe, and is the rarest of the gorillas; roughly 1 060 remain today. They inhabit the densely forested volcanic Virunga Mountain range that runs through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda, living at altitudes of 8 000 to 13 000 feet. Theirs is a remote, cold, misty world. They are shy, secretive souls that live in groups of up to 30. They live on leaves, shoots, stems, wild celery, fruit, flowers, pulp and roots. Adult males consume 30 to 40kg of vegetation a day, females about half that. Their only non-herbivore foods are ants, grubs and snails, amounting to 2% of their diet. Being nomadic, they sleep in bowl-like beds which they construct from branches and leaves, wherever they happen to be. If unprovoked, they do no harm to man or beast and their only predators are humans.
It was in these mountains of Rwanda that American Dian Fossey, influenced by anthropologist Louis Leakey, lived among mountain gorillas for 18 years. She got them to trust her and accept her as one of the group, which enabled her to study them closely and at length. In 1983, she published a book, Gorillas in the Mist, which was later made into a movie starring Sigourney Weaver. This brought instantaneous world attention to the cause of this critically endangered species. Fossey fought an ongoing war with poachers who killed gorillas to sell as ‘bush meat’ and sold their giant hands to tourists for mounting as ashtray-holders.
Few knew how ruthless and brutal Fossey was with poachers she caught, thrashing them mercilessly. When a tribesman lured and captured a baby gorilla from ‘her’ troop, she kidnapped the child of the local chief, refusing to return the child until the chief arranged for the baby gorilla to be returned. She wrote to a relative saying that the poachers badly wanted her out of there. In 1985 Fossey was found murdered in her mountain shack, her head cleaved by a panga. Her killers were never apprehended.
DIAN FOSSEY’S STORY so inspired my good friend, Bill Feldstein of California, that in 1987, he determined to go and experience for himself what she had found so captivating about these hulking primates for which she had risked and lost her life. Flying via the DRC, after landing at Kigali, Rwanda, the next stage was a challenging road trip to the Volcanoes National Park.
Only eight ‘trekkers’ (as the gorilla-seekers were called) were allowed per party. On arrival, they were lectured on what to do – and what not to do – if they made contact with gorillas. The troop would be led by an enormous silverback whose task was to watch over and protect the others. He will not ordinarily attack, but if he deems your attitude or behaviour threatening in any way, he will demonstrate very intimidatingly. He’ll approach you, stand erect and roar very loudly while thumping his chest with fists like steam hammers. In such instance you are to assume a bodily attitude of complete submission – go on your knees, lower your head and look down. Never make eye-contact with a silverback, as he interprets this as a challenge and then he gets physical – and you do not want to incur the displeasure of a silverback.
Early next morning they climbed the mountain on foot, accompanied by the guide and a soldier armed with an assault rifle. Bill asked the reason for the armed soldier and was blithely informed that the poachers who murdered Dian Fossey were still at large. Each trekker was issued with heavy gloves and garden clippers for cutting their way through the tangled mass of thorny, thistle-infested undergrowth. The weather was misty and rainy, and intensely humid, making them most uncomfortable in their rain-suits which offered little protection against the constant downpour. Eventually they reached a level above the clouds and continued climbing under clear skies. Bill says the vegetation was so dense that you could not see the trekker ahead of you or the one behind; they had to constantly cut their way through.
In 1987, there were no cell phones, GPS devices or drones, hence no means of monitoring or knowing the whereabouts of the gorilla troops. Mountain gorillas move about within a home range of about 40 square kilometres. The guide had to look for fresh droppings to follow. Bill, aged 48, and having done hunting safaris in eleven African countries, was asked to lead the procession, enabling the guide to periodically fall back to assist the older or female trekkers. When they finally got onto fresh droppings the guide informed Bill that they were nearing the same troop with which Dian Fossey had successfully habituated. The guide fell back to inform the line of trekkers, while Bill proceeded.
Bill was concentrating on clipping through the vegetation when a sudden, ear-splitting roar petrified him in his
The whole experience was the most thrilling of all his African adventures
tracks. The foliage in front of him parted to reveal a huge, hulking black form on all fours, teeth agape and eyes glaring with intense fury. Bill caught a flashing glimpse of an immense hand on an arm resembling a tree-trunk then a blow to his head felled him like a stone. Dazed and helpless, he instinctively curled into the foetal position. The shockingly loud roars and screams continued directly above him. He half opened his eyes to discover that he was lying at the feet of a giant gorilla which was standing upright, towering over him and beating its chest with its fists as it roared. Bill closed his eyes in stunned disbelief. After what felt like a lifetime but must have been a minute or so, the silverback sank onto its knuckles and disappeared through the curtain of bush.
A HUMAN VOICE made Bill aware of the anxious guide standing over him. He fingered his head but there was no blood – the gorilla had hit him a glancing blow with its fingertips. Had it used its palm, his neck would be broken. The guide said he hadn’t realised they were so close to the troop. He explained that such an attack was rare; Bill was simply unlucky that the dominant silverback happened to be right in his path of approach, rather than a female or youngster. He asked Bill if he wanted to go back, but Bill insisted they go on.
They moved forward, and almost immediately entered a cleared area where numerous gorillas were lolling about. This explained the silverback’s violent reaction – the trekkers had unwittingly stumbled into the troop’s nesting area of the previous night, taking the old boy by surprise. Gorillas are not early risers. The troop hadn’t yet moved off to start feeding, and some were still reclining in their leafy, bowllike beds. This proved very fortunate, for the troop of 23 had torn down the bush to make their beds, and the kids had been romping, so the whole area was trampled down, vastly improving visibility. The trekkers were able to sit quietly, literally with gorillas in their midst, watching females breast-feeding their babies and youngster’s frolicking. On one occasion, the big silverback that had cuffed Bill calmly walked past him not two feet away, studiously ignoring him. Bill says the whole experience was the most thrilling of all his African adventures.
Once the gorillas are sighted, each party of trekkers is allowed just one hour in their presence, so as not to get them too accustomed to humans. On the trek back, they visited the shack in which Dian Fossey had lived and died. She lies buried there, beside Digit, a big male gorilla with whom she had developed a special friendship before he was killed by poachers while protecting his troop. Bill was very moved, and he determined to involve himself in gorilla conservation – and to return…
The Hutu-tutsi tribal genocide in Rwanda, its refugee aftermath, and other factors prevented Bill from returning with his wife Lucy until 2009. Much had changed. The cost of treks had soared. GPS devices, cell phones and drones were being used to keep track of 11 different troops of gorillas, affording surer and quicker contact. Nonetheless, Bill says it remains a unique, magical and unforgettable experience.■