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This is the sort of dense African vegetation that's home to the mountain gorilla
The world's largest primate the rarest of all the great apes and one of man's closest living relatives
But just as we humans have not been very kind to each other during our time on this planet
We have not been kind to the mountain gorilla
We've persecuted it kidnapped it for our zoos and shot it just for sport in
recent decades however a small band of dedicated people has fought a good fight to protect the mountain gorilla and
Hopefully ensure its survival
Diane Fossey for example lived among them here in Africa for 18 years
Sharing their daily lives almost as a member of the family
By the end of this hour. I think you will understand why mountain gorillas
Inspired such passion and Diane Fossey and others who have taken the time to get to know them
There are less than 400 mountain gorillas left in the world
The mountain gorilla may become extinct within the same century as it was discovered
The future of the mountain gorilla is contingent upon the whims of man
Since these animals are among our closest relatives their relationships are in their way as
hierarchies. Their size, strength, intimidating chest beats and screams led to the King Kong
image. This is unkind and undeserved, for gorillas are shy and gentle and have no real enemies other
than humans. Their bright eyes suggest great intelligence and for the infants play forms
the main part of the daily routine.
This is not the lowland gorilla which lives in the rainforests of West and Central Africa and
numbers in the tens of thousands. This is the rare mountain gorilla, larger with thicker fur and only
discovered at the turn of the century. There may never have been thousands of these gorillas,
their range is too limited. At the last count there were approximately 300 left in the Varungas and
less than 200 in Uganda, perhaps half as many as there were only 30 years ago. Unlike chimpanzees,
the other African apes, gorillas are almost completely vegetarian. They need only to stretch
out an arm to reach something succulent to eat. It's not only the infants that play, adult males
indulge in play fights, an important social activity that may help to establish an individual
standing in the group. The silverback male, the leader of the group, finally gets the better of
the younger blackback male and reinforces his dominant status. Encounters with other animals
are infrequent. A chameleon, one of only two reptiles found here, elicits more than just passing
curiosity. The Varungas are a chain of six inactive volcanoes in the mountains of Central
Africa at the point where Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda meet. The mountain gorilla's conservation
area is tiny, some 25 miles long by about eight miles wide, with another smaller area in Uganda
separate from the rest. The gorillas range through beautiful montane forests,
bamboo and alpine meadows up to 13,000 feet, areas that provide a huge variety of food plants.
The highest volcano is Mount Karasimbi at 14,800 feet. Serious study of mountain gorillas didn't
begin until 1960 when George Schaller logged about 460 hours of observation. Then in 1967,
Diane Fossey started an eventful 18 years of work. At first she was at Kabara in Zaire. Later she
set up a research station in the Parque de Volcans in Rwanda, in the saddle area between
volcanoes Karasimbi and Visoki. She put these words together to create the name Karisoki for
her camp. Fossey was the first scientist to be totally accepted by the gorillas.
Every morning when starting out for work, I really didn't know what the day's observations
would bring. The gorilla only had known humans in the form of poachers or herdsmen. Therefore,
it was easy to understand their initial fear and apprehension when I first sought to make
contacts with them. These days were a bit frustrating. Finally, I was rewarded by a
different type of response. To earn response behavior, it was meant to intimidate with chest
beats and vocalizations. Slowly, over the years, all the animals of Group 4 were approaching
very closely simply because of their own initiative and a sense of curiosity. To have finally been
accepted by the wild gorillas was its own reward and the thrill of each day's contact is one that
will never diminish. It was a young male gorilla Fossey called Peanuts who one day had enough
confidence to reach out and touch her outstretched hand. An incredible moment. The first ever
peaceable contact with a wild gorilla and an experience she never forgot. At Karasimbi,
she had to come to terms with solitude in the rugged surroundings, sharing the trees
and meadows with the animals that freely wandered around her camp.
The forest and mountains, which seemed so magical to her in the beginning, later became
a source of exhaustion and discomfort. Ill health plagued her for the last ten years
of her work and days, weeks, even months passed by without any visits to the gorillas that
she loved. Just behind her cabin, she made a graveyard for the gorillas that either died
of natural causes or were killed by poachers. As she came to know the gorillas, she named
them all individually. Over Christmas 1985, Diane Fossey herself suffered a violent death.
Her body was laid to rest alongside those of Mawelu and Digit.
Following Fossey's death, the Rwandan men who worked with her did not give up. They
kept Karisoki open as a research center, running the camp, manning the anti-poaching patrols
and tracking the gorillas.
Scientists from around the world have continued the studies that Fossey began in 1969, coming
to stay and work at the research center she founded. Dr. Alan Goodall, as director of
Karisoki, coordinates anti-poaching activities with park service personnel who patrol the
area.
But the primary focus of the work at Karisoki is long-term research on the gorillas and
the ecology of the park. A study on the structure of gorilla family groups and the role of the
females is being carried out by zoologist Pascale Secotte.
Leaving the group could be nature's way of mixing individuals and helping to prevent
inbreeding. But until they leave, the young males and females enjoy a mainly peaceful
existence with close, often tender relationships with their parents and other members of the
group, resting, playing, and grooming one another. Departing males gradually will try
to form their own groups by attracting females from established ones. Sometimes it's a female
in estrus that initiates mating, and the male obliges. A male becomes a sexually mature
silverback between the ages of 12 to 15, developing a saddle of silvery white fur and a tall crest.
If he's the only silverback in the group, he doesn't have to guard her against a competing
male. A successful pairing will mean a new baby in eight and a half to nine months. Her
older offspring, still eager for attention, will have to move aside for the new infant.
Gorillas feed on more than 70 kinds of plants. They usually go for the leaves, shoots, and
stems, often stripping off the outer layer to reach the pit. But they also eat fruits,
bark, roots, and even dirt, sometimes combining some of these together to make a sort of mixed
salad. Goosegrass, nettles, thistle. To a human, many of their food items are made of
seeds, and the seeds are bitter or astringent.
Occasionally, they also eat each other's dung, an important source of microbes that produce
essential vitamins not available from plants. And one further source of food is devoured
with gusto. Though gorillas have been known to look for grubs and snails, only rarely
have they been seen eating ants. This is the first time this unusual behavior has been
filmed. Safari ants bite painfully, and it's only a matter of time before some, at least,
find their way through the thick fur to the skin. Then it's all a gorilla can do to grab
a handful of the delicacy and run. The gorillas range throughout the volcanoes, and it's
part of the research at Karisoke to make daily checks on the whereabouts and welfare of three
of the groups. One of these, of which Peanuts is the leader, is on Mount Karisimbi at a
height of almost 13,000 feet. After that first magical encounter with Diane Fossey, Peanuts
went on to become a silverback. Now he's with his group in the subalpine zone. Up here,
the vegetation is completely different, and some of the plants become giants. It's a difficult
place to track gorillas because they don't leave much of a trail. So unless it's known
roughly where they were the day before, there may be little hope of finding them at all.
An outstanding tracker for many years, Neme Alphonse, accompanied by Alan Goodall, hopes
to find Peanuts and his group.
You just found the night nests where they slept last night, so let's go and have a closer
look.
It may seem a strange habit, but gorillas always defecate inside their nests. I'm not
sure whose nest this is, but judging by some of the hairs here, it looks as though it could
be the nest of the silverback. All we've got to do now is find today's trail and follow
that to where they are, to Gendy.
Normally from the night nests, there's a trail of broken plant material and fresh dung leading
to the gorillas, but if they don't want to be seen, they can blend silently into the
vegetation.
Although we're just south of the equator, it can be quite cold up here.
It's a popular misconception that the gorillas have been forced up into these higher altitudes
by human pressure from down below, but actually they've evolved up here in these mountains
and are very well adapted. Their coats, their hairs are much thicker than those of lowland
gorillas. They come up here to feed on the giant senesio vegetation and the giant lobelias.
Normally they only spend a few days up here feeding on this vegetation. What's so unusual
about this group is that they've been up here for over a month.
That peanuts had stayed up high for so long indicated that something was seriously wrong.
Perhaps it was because he was ill and the particular vegetation here offered certain
nutritional benefits. Although the star of that first memorable contact with Dian Fossey,
he has spent a life marked by illness or infection. His troubles began with a terrible injury
to his eye and face during a fight in 1971 when he was only 10 years old.
Peanuts has an unusual group with only seven animals in it and six of those are males.
The one female will not reach sexual maturity for another two years. For some reason, peanuts
was never very successful in either attracting females or keeping them and so far as is known,
he has no offspring.
~)
Normally, gorilla groups move often enough to avoid serious impact on any one patch of vegetation.
But with peanuts extended stay here, the giant zinnesias are beginning to show signs of wear.
These plants are very old and regenerate very slowly.
It's peanuts odd behavior that's causing his group to restrict themselves to this one small area.
Although the gorilla groups range through different zones, some show a preference for certain food plants.
Two groups spend much of their time near the border of the park and sometimes wander outside its boundaries.
To keep the gorillas safe inside the conservation area, a fence is being built along certain sections of the park's boundaries.
It's an ambitious undertaking that will only succeed through the dedication of both the park warden,
Canisius Charambere, and the mountain gorilla project headed by Craig Charley.
The mountain gorilla project was founded in 1979 by a consortium of environmental groups and the Rwandan Park Service.
The objectives of the project were to reduce poaching, develop tourism,
and increase local awareness of the value of conservation through an educational outreach program.
The fence symbolizes the cooperation between the project and the local people.
It prevents animals such as buffalo from damaging crops,
and it also deters people from entering the park to cut firewood or to poach antelope.
Rwanda is densely populated, so there is great pressure on the land, particularly here near the volcanoes where the soil is so rich.
Many of these local people may never see the gorillas that live on their doorstep,
and it's difficult to know how to convince them that they should not use the park's land to grow the crops they need to feed their families.
How can they understand why the gorillas should have so much land when they have so little?
And explanations are not made easier by the presence of the European-funded Pyrethrum Plantation,
a development project that was granted four-tenths of park land for the production of insecticides.
Yet in spite of all this, many Rwandans do believe in their park,
and have on occasion responded generously in their support of its conservation.
Craig Scholley believes very strongly in supporting the needs of the people and striking a balance between them and conservation.
But there's no room for error with the tiny population of mountain gorillas living in such close proximity to people.
It's a conservation dilemma that's becoming all too familiar throughout the world.
The future of the land and all its native animals and plants teeters on a knife edge.
This particular part of the forest is an interesting place.
Four years ago, there were cattle grazing here.
It was part of a cattle project used by the Rwandan government.
A year before that, there were gorillas ranging here.
Realizing the importance of the forest to the gorillas,
we convinced the local community to donate the land back to the park.
Now gorillas are ranging in this area again.
Fifty-five hectares have been reclaimed.
Such positive conservation steps offer a glimmer of hope for the remaining 500 or so mountain gorillas.
The bamboo that was cut will regenerate.
More bamboo, more bamboo shoots.
For some groups, a favorite food.
The gorillas are remarkably consistent in their tastes.
Most of their diet consists of foliage of herbs, vines, and shrubs, which are available all year round.
Of all the important food plants, only bamboo shoots are seasonal.
But when they are available, the gorillas gorge themselves.
An adult female will eat about 40 pounds in a day.
But an adult silverback, twice the size, will put away an incredible 75 pounds of food.
What do you think?
I like it.
It's no wonder that gorillas have pot bellies and occasional digestive problems.
Feeding is interrupted by frequent rest periods, a good time for socializing.
Today we're on the slopes of Mount Karasindi. This is the range of the Susa group. As far as we know,
it's the largest group of mountain gorillas in the world. Yesterday there were 29, today there are 30.
In all the years that people have been studying mountain gorillas, no one has ever observed a
birth in the wild. So it's a very rare privilege to see a baby so young, maybe only two or three
hours old. The umbilical cord is still attached and its fur is not yet dry.
The birth of this new baby came as quite a surprise to me this morning. In addition to this female,
there are several other females in the group that may be potentially pregnant. Also, there are two
large adult silverbacks, both of whom share leadership responsibilities. But in the future,
there may be a dilemma. Because of that, the group may split. We sit back and wait and watch
the dynamics of the group and wonder what will happen. The tenderness between mother
and newborn infant is obvious. It's not her first baby. She's experienced and quite high ranking in
the group, which will increase the new infant's chances of survival. One quarter of all babies
may die within the first few years of their lives because of weakness or disease. A first-time mother
can lose her baby by not being able to produce enough milk. Happily though, there is no such
problem for this one. The silverback will protect infants and females from obvious
sources of danger. But the mother also has to be protective. New infants attract a lot of attention
from the other gorillas. And if she's not careful, the baby could be injured or killed through rough
handling by other members of the group. They may only want to touch the baby, but even that is just
not allowed. An adolescent wanting to play can be very persistent and may not realize its own
strength. But an experienced mother can fend off such potentially dangerous encounters.
It's remarkable that a population so small has not yet shown serious signs of inbreeding. The
gorillas actually seem to have developed some resistance to such problems. But if their numbers
decline any further, inbreeding could pose a threat to the entire population. In a world already
loaded against them, visits to the bamboo zone near the park border can be extremely dangerous.
It's here that poachers set their traps using springy stems to power snares, which they set
primarily for two kinds of antelope, bushbuck and diker. To help the gorillas, experienced
anti-poaching teams run daily patrols through the forest.
Park Service and Mountain Gorilla Project personnel have been doing this difficult work
for many years. They have an amazing ability to spot snares, often set in lines along animal trails.
From the 1960s until 1984, gorillas were killed by poachers to service a macabre tourist trade
in gorilla parts, hands for ashtrays and heads as souvenirs. But even though that has been stopped,
the gorillas still suffer. In 1988 alone, patrols found and cut 2,600 antelope traps. Gorillas have
been removed from snares and treated. Some survive, but a snare inflicts a terrible wound. It can cost
a gorilla a hand, and death may follow if gangrene takes hold. This scene was recorded on video by
Craig Scholley and shows gorillas playing with a snare, which fortunately had been triggered
without doing any harm. This male was lucky. A snare cost him his hand, but he manages quite
well using the remaining one. Suzanne Abelgard, a veterinarian, checks on the gorillas' general
welfare. I monitor seven groups of habituated gorillas, and I try and visit each group about
once every two weeks. Sometimes working here can be hard, climbing up and down volcanoes,
getting home soaking wet, cold, hungry. But I have to admit that it's all worthwhile in the end.
The work is rewarding, but inevitably there are depressing days when tragedy strikes.
Definitely looks like it's dead. Yeah, there doesn't appear to be any movement there whatsoever.
But she's still holding it in a pretty normal position.
Imbele, a young female, has had her first baby and lost it. It was just four days old.
It's a sad day when a gorilla dies. When a mother loses a baby, it is quite normal for her to
continue carrying the body as if it were still alive for two, even three days. Craig and Suzanne
stay with her, hoping to collect the body for an autopsy if she drops it.
As time passes, Imbele puts down the body of her baby more and more frequently. To reassure her,
Craig imitates the calming sounds gorillas use when among each other.
She seems to be feeding now, so maybe we should just stay back a bit and not push her too much.
I would agree. We should probably stick by her for a while though and see if we can recover the body.
So we can do an examination back at the lab and try and find out how it died.
The autopsy revealed severe injury and internal bleeding as the cause of the baby's death.
Imbele was possibly too submissive to protect her baby from the eager attentions of the other
gorillas, and it seems likely that the baby died as a result of injury by another group member.
In heavy rainfall, which is frequent, the gorillas stop feeding. The adults sit motionless,
but sometimes the infants can't contain themselves.
Okay.
As the afternoon draws on and the rain abates, the gorillas build their nests for the night.
And as dusk falls, local villagers gather in a square to see a film about gorillas.
It is part of the conservation education program organized by the Mountain Gorilla Project,
the Park Service, and the U.S. Peace Corps. It's a popular and regular event designed to arouse
interest in the park and its animals and to keep the people up to date with any news.
The film showings have been very successful in promoting conservation,
and there has been a steady increase in the number of Rwandans who believe
there is a benefit in keeping the park.
Dawn over Mecano.
At the edge of the park, a group of six tourists assembles.
Right here is the limit of the park and the forest. Once we go into the forest,
we ask you to talk softly. Obviously, the quieter we are, the better chances there are of seeing
other wildlife such as daiker, bushbuck, buffalo, maybe some golden monkeys, and a wide variety of
bird life. Okay, once we get to the gorillas, we want to stay again in a tight group, staying
behind the guides and or myself, okay? And we really want to keep a distance, a minimal distance
of five meters between the gorillas and ourselves. This is our biggest defense mechanism against
disease transmission to the gorillas. The gorillas are closely enough related to us that they're
very susceptible to human diseases, but yet they're not at all resistant. In addition,
at five meters, we are not imposing upon the gorillas, so it allows you a better chance to
see their natural behavior. The tourists spend only one hour with the gorillas, but there's
rarely any disappointment. This group has 13 animals, one adult male silverback, five adult
females, five juveniles, and two young infants. The tourists are helping gorilla conservation
by bringing money to the park. Little do the gorillas know that by tolerating the visitors,
they are safeguarding their future, for they are now a valuable asset to Rwanda. The hour expires,
the tourists depart, and the forest belongs to the gorillas once more. The difficult question is,
how far can conservation management be taken? The future of the mountain gorillas is still
uncertain, but to what extent should we interfere with wild animals in order to save them? Every
step can and does raise new problems. Do frequent visits by people upset natural behavior patterns?
How great is the risk of transmitting human disease? Should the vet intervene to help weak
or sickly animals? Do we actually know enough to do what we're doing? For now, every management
strategy is considered, and research continues to further knowledge not only of the gorillas,
but of the park as a whole. Andrew Plumtree is a research biologist based at Karisoke.
His project is to study five of the species of herbivores in the park, like these Cape
Buffalo. He monitors their impact on food plants to find out how much they compete,
especially with the gorillas. Another study is looking at the rare and beautiful golden monkeys,
a subspecies of guenon, which are found only in the Varunga Mountains and two other forests
nearby. Little is known about these monkeys, and this is the first time they have been filmed.
Shane Parkill has spent months trying to get close enough to them to find out about their
feeding habits. The golden monkeys eat, among other things, bamboo shoots, just as the gorillas
do, but so far competition does not seem to be a problem. Bamboo is so plentiful that there is
enough for both the gorillas and the monkeys. Mecano, the oldest Varunga volcano, now extinct,
but two other volcanoes are still active. There are signs to suggest that volcanic activity in
the whole region is increasing.
This is a new cone on the flanks of an active volcano in adjacent Zaire. It erupted in May 1989,
and the previous major eruption in the area was only two years before. No gorillas live here. In
fact, the new eruptions are separated from the park by a narrow strip of cultivation and settlements.
An eruption inside gorilla territory could, in the short term, devastate their population. In the
long term, the eruptions outside the park theoretically could increase the natural area,
but for now the park exists as an island in an ocean of human settlement. In many parts of Africa
and indeed the world, the story is a familiar one, dwindling animal populations in natural areas
that become smaller year by year. The pressures are obvious, but exploiting the conservation area
will not help the people if the population continues to grow at its present rate. Already,
the population of Rwanda is the densest in Africa. Ninety-five percent of the people live by
agriculture, placing immense demands on the land, demands that will only increase as time goes on.
Tourism, while not a complete solution, offers an alternative way of earning income.
Part of the appeal and presence of these gorillas is the fact that they are so close to us.
In their family lives, their lifespan of 50 to 60 years, their inquisitive intelligence.
Peanuts, the first wild gorilla to reach out and touch a human hand in curiosity and friendship.
His gesture of acceptance so many years ago has helped to change forever the way humans
feel about gorillas, a change that is the best hope for their future.
While this film was being made, Peanut's ill health grew steadily worse. His group remained
with him in the high subalpine zone as he became weaker. Finally, on the first of May,
after several days of not moving from his night nest, he died.
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