About the Gorillas
Gorillas are the largest of the apes, native to the lowland and mountain forests of western and central equatorial Africa. The two species, the eastern or mountain gorilla (Gorilla berengei) and the western or lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and five subspecies are all under threat; with the Virunga mountain gorilla (Gorilla berengei berengei) at fewer than 720. This figure may be as few as 320 if the taxonomy of the Bwindi mountain gorilla is classified as Gorilla berengei bwindii, as some scientists suggest it should be.
Mountain gorillas are threatened by poaching, loss of habitat, human disease and war. Accidents from snares set for bush-meat can result in the loss of a hand or foot, and septicaemia from injuries can be fatal. Loss of habitat is now the main factor in their survival.
Mountain Gorillas live only in the mountain rainforests of central Africa, in the Virunga Volcano conservation area on the borders of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda, and just 25 miles away in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. A third population, at Kahuzi-Biega National Park in Congo, have been so badly hit by war and mineral exploitation in their habitat in the past few years that some people believe they have gone forever, certainly very few remain although insecurity concerns make any kind of census currently unthinkable.
Mountain gorillas are social animals who live in close family groups of around 5 to 40. A typical family may have an adult male silverback leader, some adolescent blackback males and several females with their infants. A silverback may weigh over 200 kilos (twice as much as a female gorilla and three times as much as an average human) and be 1.7 to 1.8 meters tall when standing. Females usually conceive at around 8 to 9 years with their first baby being born before age 10. Pregnancy lasts 8 and a half months. Infants are weaned at about 2 years, but will 'comfort suckle' as long as their mother lets them, or until she gives birth again - usually after around 3 to 4 years. Males will usually reproduce before the age of 15.
Gorillas are almost entirely herbivorous. They eat berries, roots, shoots, fruit, leaves, bark, bamboo and wild celery, and occasionally ants. An adult male can consume up to 30 kilos of food each day. As well as having fingerprints, gorillas also have unique 'noseprints'.
Historical Highlights
n 1847 two American explorers, Thomas Savage and Jeffries Wyman, presented a paper to the Boston Society of Natural History describing 'A new species of Orang from the Gabon river'; but it was not until the 20th century that the mountain gorillas of Rwanda were discovered by the outside world.
In October 1902, a German army officer, Captain Oscar von Beringe, shot two unknown apes whilst climbing Mount Sabinyo in the Virunga volcanoes as part of an expedition to establish the boundaries of German East Africa. He recovered one of them from the ravine it had fallen into and it became the type specimen for Gorilla g. beringei - the true mountain gorilla.
After World War I, Rwanda became a Belgian protectorate and big game hunters began to visit the Virunga Volcanoes to 'bag a gorilla'. One of these hunters was Carl Akeley of the American Museum of Natural History. He was so impressed by the beauty of the mountain gorilla's domain that, in 1925, he persuaded King Albert of Belgium to create Africa's first national park to protect them. Akeley and his wife also went back to study the gorillas, but sadly he died of fever in the cold, wet climate of the Virungas, and was buried in a glade called Kabara, between Mounts Mikeno and Karisimbi.
It was not until 1959 that serious research into the mountain gorillas recommenced, as described by George Schaller in his popular book 'The Year of the Gorilla'. And just as Schaller followed in Akeley's footsteps, so Dian Fossey built upon Schaller's work when she moved into the Kabara cabin in January 1967. Civil unrest in the newly independent Congo forced Fossey to flee after only six months, but in September 1967 she made a second beginning. In another glade a few miles from Kabara, over the border in what was then the peaceful country of Rwanda, she pitched her tent between Mounts Karisimbi and Visoke. The Karisoke Research Centre was born.
Photos of the Mountain gorillas