There are thought to be less than 700 mountain gorillas left in the world, and they are found only in a small area in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda - until recently one of the most unstable areas in the world. Gorillas however are a big money maker for all three countries, and prices have shot up to $500US (that is about $123 million in Australian dollars) a permit. Damo and I managed to knock them down a bit which you can read all about HERE.
Once the bargaining ended, and despite never receiving the permit in our hand, almost before we knew it we were in the back of the troop carrier heading off to the trail head for the Susa group. The Susa group are the largest family of mountain gorillas with 40 members (the other four groups have 13, 16, 13 and 6 members) and the hardest to reach. We drove through small town after small town, the space between them filled with fields of bananas, sorghum and corn, and local kids who waved and yelled out "mzungu, mzungu !!!" like they had never seen a honky before. After about 40 minutes we reached a small town, parked up, introduced ourselves to each other, got our wooden walking sticks with a lovely kitsch carved gorilla, and headed off along a narrow path between the fields behind a man dressed in olive green with a big gun (allegedly for rogue buffaloes), and our guide . Before long we had attracted a crowd of thirty or forty kids, who followed us at a small distance, and steadfastly ignored the repeated attempts of the guide and his assistants to shoo them away. There
was a little nervous tension and expectation in the air, which we all tried to cover up with conversation with our new tracking mates, a diverse mix of Swedes, older and younger Americans and ourselves.After about thirty minutes walking we reached a metre high stone wall which marked the border of the park, as the path started to head up the side of the volcano. Once we crossed in to the park we entered the bamboo forest, thick, bare, green bamboo trunks stretching straight up, topped by a canopy of greenery.
Despite only sharing 95% of human DNA gorillas are clearly far clever than homo sapien sapien - they are vegetarian. They can weigh as
much as 200 kilograms (females are about half that) and consume about 15% of their body weight in bamboo shoots, giant thistles and wild celery, with the odd insect for some protein. (OK, so not pure vegetarians)After another hour or so walking the undergrowth started to appear, thick knee high grass, and bushes and vines feeling in the space between the bamboo trunks. We then came upon our four trackers. The trackers set out early in the morning and try and find the gorillas, and radio through to the guide to let him know where they are.
We left our bags with the trackers, and started to hack our way through the forest which with the change in altitude changed, far less bamboo. The undergrowth became thicker and darker the further we went. I had stupidly forgot to put on my long sleeve shirt, so I was trying to play a game of limbo to avoid the stinging nettles. Needless to stay I was largely unsuccessful and was soon itching with stings up and down my arms. Without warning, we appeared in a clearing and there in front of us were 8 or 10 gorillas spread across the clearing, two gorillas sitting 3 or 4 metres directly in front of us, munching away on bamboo, oblivious to us.
I was immediately struck by their size - gorillas are huge - thickly set, large heads, bulging biceps, long arms and thick fingers, broad chests, big bums and a thick, glossy almost radiant covering of jet black hair. There was a lot of gasping as we watched a group of two or three munching away on some bamboo, breaking the stalks with their hands, then chewing on the crunchy inner part, completely ignoring our presence.
The guides grouped us together, and then looking behind us I see a huge silverback sitting 5 or six metres behind us. This gorilla is massive - sitting on the ground, with only his shoulders and head showing above the thick brush - broad chest, thick arms, chopping block head and
across his lower back a strip of bristling,
white hair. Suddenly I am reminded of King Kong, and can easily see how the idea of a massive gorilla was so easily insinuated in to the public consciousness - here is King Kong, a lot physically smaller than the movie, but almost as big in stature.Gorilla families have a silverback, so called because as males reach maturity at between 8 and 15 years their hair on their lower back turns silver, at the top of the hierarchy. Further down the pecking order are the other silverbacks, younger black-back males, females and then infants. Most gorillas leave the group when they reach maturity. It is the silverback that dictates the days movements, which we witnessed near the end of our stay when the silverback decided it was time to go, and most of the gorillas scurried off ahead of him in to the bushes.
Not long after, Damien spots the silverback, even larger than the one I had spotted, sitting in the middle of the big group, surrounded by perhaps 10 to 15 gorillas. In this group are the huge silverback, a few infants and their mothers and some juveniles as well. We all watch in complete awe as a couple of infants wrestling with each other, jumping on each other, and rolling about like small furry balls. All the while the rest of the gorillas are constantly eating. The younger ones use their whole body to leverage shoots out of the ground, and as the bamboo is torn loose from the ground, the gorillas almost inevitably fall over backwards, then get up, dust themselves off and start eating. For as long as we watch them they munch away on the greenery.
The incredible spectacle we witnessed was a single group with five silverbacks all together at once- at one point each way we looked there was a silverback looking back at us.
Gorillas use a variety of means of communicating including facial expressions, gestures and calls. (Interesting at the San Francisco Zoo a gorilla has been trained to understand more than 100 words using a touch screen, however whilst the gorillas can use multiple words he is unable to construct sentences or acquire language) Being surrounded by so many silverbacks, we had the privilege of hearing a few go through the chest beating routine, producing a hair raising, deep and thumping call which reverberated through the forest.
As we watch this group at play, over to our right is another silverback who appears as though his work for the day is done. He is lying prostrate, on his back, hands behind his head stretched out sunning himself. He has a huge white belly sticking out, his eyes are closed and he his very relaxed. At one point he rolls over, still lying down he rests his head on his hands, opens his eyes for a while with a look of deep contemplation, and then goes back to sleep.
The guides are frequently moving us around, for our own safety, better views and to avoid crowding out smaller groups. The head guide wanders off away from the main group, and I follow close behind. As he cuts his way through some bushes we spot a silverback with an small infant. Interestingly in gorilla families when a mother dies the infant is often adopted and then reared by a silverback, creating the arresting spectacle of a 200 kilo behemoth, tenderly playing with a tiny infant gorilla, about the same size, and appearance, as a carnival stuffed toy. (Almost the same size relationship as King Kong and his paramour) As we approached the silverback he became a little perturbed, and with one hand in a single movement scooped up the infant and threw him on to his shoulder. The infant squirmed about, eventually sliding down the chest of the silverback, and ended up on its bum on the ground. The silverback decides it is time to leave, and gets up and wanders off with the infant scampering closely behind. (PICT 209)
We return to the main group and watch them for a while longer. I start to notice heir faces - the eyes are most striking, and the expressions are most human-like, whether playful or pensive, it is easy to slip in to anthropomorphising these looks, faces and acts. Likewise the sitting posture, including the beer gut, the use of the fingers to handle the food (and each other) and the manner of eating, reinforces the gorillas' humanness.
Being so close allows us to get a good look, and whilst they only glance at any of us a couple of times, you can
clearly see how evolution didn't force much change over the millions of years that separate us. So much so that I start to see the resemblance with a few people I know - one ex-boss in particular springs to mind. Eventually the main silverback decided it is time to move on, he stood up on all fours and immediately all the other gorillas turned around to pay attention. The silverback began to chase another large gorilla - and all the others begin to scuttle. Interestingly, despite their size, gorillas are relatively placid, and conflict is mostly restricted to shows of strength and vocal disputes. The silverback catches the target, taps him on the head, and then waddles off in to the bushes, with the others following not far behind.
As the main group move off we head back to where the lazing silverback was - he is now sitting up, happily chewing away, their is a glint in his eye as if to say about time I got some attention. We move a little closer to him, with Damo in the lead, and the silverback decides it is time to leg it. As you can see in the video, gorillas have a very particular way of moving on all fours, lumbering around with their bums in the air. Like myself, Damo seemed so intrigued by the way the silverback was moving that he got a little too close, and had to beat a hasty retreat - but all in the name of capturing that authentic experience. (INSERT VIDEO 224)
We get the five minute warning from our guide, and quickly search out a few of the fringe dwellers. Another silverback puts on a little show for us, posing on all fours, looking around for a while, a smile for the camera, and then collapsing on to the ground for a nanna-nap. We spot a few more in the bushes at a distance, and then our time is up, and we reluctantly drag ourselves away, trying to catch one last glimpse of these awesome animals.We manage to capture these two hairy ones as we leave the clearing.
On the walk back to the cars we are again surrounded by children, who treat the mzungu (honkies) like we treat the gorillas. Every once in a while Damo and I pull or coordinated kid scaring move, on the count of three we turn around and run at the kids growling. The kids immediately scatter, with the look of fear in their eyes as though they are about to be eaten by the mzungu. Every one, them and us, ends up in fits of laughter, and yet the trick continues to work not matter how many times we pull it.When we finally arrive back in our hotel in Ruhengeri we find our faithful friend waiting to direct us home
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