Gorillas and Chimps
Recognition. Connection.
These are the profound emotions evoked by intimate encounters with the great apes that are our closest living relatives. Gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans share more than 98% of the same genetic make-up. And this fact becomes much more than a mere abstraction if one is lucky enough to spend time among our primate cousins in their natural habitat.
“When I look back on my time with the gorillas, I remember the magic of the animals, the beauty of a family patriarch, his silver saddle sparkling like morning frost. Such images are anchored in my heart. That in this supposedly enlightened age the mountain gorilla remains so vulnerable, its existence so wholly dependent on human whim, fills me with exasperation and indignation. Its loss would be a death in the family.”
George B. Schaller, one of the first scientists to study the gorillas, writing in 1989
When I returned to Uganda for my second visit in 1972, gorilla familes were not yet habituated in Uganda and Dian Fossey was not interested in allowing tourists to visit her families in Rwanda, so I went to Zaire and tracked gorillas with Adrien de Schryver who was instrumental in convincing the then-President Mbutu of Zaire to create Kahuzi-Biega National Park to protect them.
Since then I have been privileged to track gorillas in Rwanda after Dian Fossey’s death and again in Zaire. By the time I returned to Uganda in March 2004 three gorilla families could be viewed and a fourth family is being habituated.
Gorillas live in the mist-swathed rainforests in the Virunga Mountain chain that stretches across the three countries of Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda. Only 600 of these magnificent animals remain worldwide, and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda is home to just over half of them.
Chimpanzees can be found not only in Uganda but also in Tanzania. The Kibale equatorial rainforest in Uganda is home to about 500 while about 1000 are found in Mahale National Park along the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
Gorilla hands are as dexterous and nimble as our own. Chimpanzee faces are as individual and expressive as human ones. Playful and affectionate, posturing and eccentric, these intelligent and highly social animals display a range of personality and relationships that is as subtle and entertaining as any family gathering!
If you can, and while it is still possible, make the trek to visit these rare animals; these privileged meetings are unforgettable experiences — with the almost mystical power to make us feel less cut off from Nature, less alone among species.
See more photos of my time with the gorillas
photo credits: Paul Oliver, Howard Saunders
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