Meeting the Largest of the Great Apes
By “Awake!” correspondent in Zaïre
“NOW remember, when he charges just stand perfectly still. He will come out of the brush suddenly with a loud scream, crashing violently through the tangled undergrowth. He will stop a few feet away from us. Then he will stand up, beat his chest and roar furiously. Don’t move! Keep silent. It’s only a bluff charge that he makes toward human intruders.”
“Don’t move!” Our guide’s words kept echoing through our thoughts as we tramped through the dense forests of the eastern part of Zaïre, formerly the Belgian Congo. How would we react upon coming face to face with one of nature’s most formidable-looking animals, the mountain gorilla, largest of the apes? His strength is said to be fifteen times that of man! How would my wife react? And what of the others in our party of six?
Our guide and his pygmy trackers had become very familiar with these rare and powerful animals. They had made many trips high into these jungle homelands of the gorilla, the pygmies having even hunted them for food when necessary. The apes had never followed through on their mock attack—yet. They always stopped a few feet away.
Although more than a hundred years have passed since the first white explorers penetrated gorilla country, only in the past two decades have intense scientific studies been made. The great apes are classified among the world’s rarest animals, found only in a few regions of Central Africa. The home of the largest of the great apes lies in rain forests of mountains that straddle the borders of the Republic of Zaïre, western Uganda and Rwanda.
A Gentle Nature
As we tramp farther into their territory we remind ourselves that gorillas are not normally aggressive. While this animal could easily tear a man from limb to limb, beneath his fierce appearance lies a shy and gentle, even introverted, nature. He has occasionally wandered down to the edge of a tea or coffee plantation and scared off the workers. However, a gorilla will not normally carry people off, or even hurt a human, unless molested or attacked. That is encouraging, but could we believe it?
We recall that gorillas travel in family groups, from a few individuals to several dozen. Each family has its leader toward whom the members will demonstrate affection and loyalty. What he does will determine the actions of the whole group. The leader generally is a male over ten years of age, and is distinguished by his silver-colored back contrasting with the iron-gray-colored hair on the rest of his body.
At maturity the great ape is enormous. His massive body weighs up to 450 pounds and he stands maybe five and a half feet tall. His gigantic arms may span eight feet! What a contrast to the three- to four-pound baby he was when born! His development is very rapid, about twice as fast as that of man.
A great ape may live to the ripe old age of thirty or even thirty-five. Does he really stand and walk around like a man? No, he is quadrupedal, usually going on all fours, moving in an intriguing half-swinging, half-jumping motion. His arms serve mainly as crutches, with the weight of his body being supported by calloused, flexed knuckles.
We knew that our presence would elicit chest-beating displays and maybe that frightening mock attack, and that this would be his way of warning his family of approaching danger as well as to intimidate us human intruders. Nevertheless, we pressed on into their domain along the trail they had made the previous day.
Always on the Move
Hiking through the jungle tracking gorillas is an unforgettable experience. Gorillas live like nomads, wandering through the forest in search for food, never spending two nights in the same place; but they restrict their movements to definite boundaries, staying within an area of about fifteen to twenty square miles. Though they may travel up to ten miles a day, depending on the availability of food, their trail is not difficult to pick up. They move in single file, crushing vegetation, breaking branches, partially eating food plants, and leaving behind other signs that remain conspicuous for many days.
But wait! All of a sudden the leading pygmy cries, “Angalia!” We have learned that this Swahili word means, “Look here!” What did he see? He has found the camp where the group slept last night! At dusk the day before, each member had built a recognizable nest of leaves and twigs. To construct his bed, each animal had evidently stood in a central position where leafy branches were available, pulling in and breaking off the vegetation, placing it around his body in a fairly orderly heap and plunking himself down in the middle of it. Here is where they slept from about 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.—twelve hours.
We counted nineteen beds, including those made by youngsters. In this family everybody made his own bed. A few gorillas had built beds in forks and branches of trees, hammock style, building with heavier branches to bear the weight of the animal. One was thirty feet above the ground. While the nests told us much about the group, there was no obvious pattern or arrangement such as for warmth or protection, nor would they do any good against wind or rain or bad weather conditions. They were merely comfortable heaps.
What Do Gorillas Eat?
Shortly after daybreak (which is 6 a.m. all year round here in the tropics) they gradually abandon their beds and start their two-hour breakfast, leisurely moving from snack to snack. Some may start breakfast in bed. Preparation of food is unnecessary. Gorillas simply reach out and grab a handful of vegetation. When they have finished one patch, they move over a few steps to the next.
The gorilla never kills for food. At his worst he may raid a cultivated banana patch. Having never been observed to eat meat in the wild, unlike his kin the chimpanzee, this peaceful vegetarian subsists on a diet of roots, leaves, young shoots and fruit. A favorite with him is stripping and biting off the bark of young branches to get at the more tender inner part. As rain is plentiful and morning dew lies heavily on the already succulent foods, one will not find gorillas stopping for a drink of water from a lake or stream.
The gorilla’s diet is anything but monotonous, with at least a hundred varieties of plants to choose from. After breakfast these great apes may lounge around until mid-morning; then they strike out again in their search for food. In this respect gorillas are like gibbons and chimpanzees.
The Encounter
As we get closer, we see many telltale signs that our first encounter with the group is near. A pungent odor is in the air. The pygmy ahead motions us to remain still. We had been warned that the gorilla’s vision is acute and that he is quick in spotting slight movements. We creep along quietly, but branches snap under our feet. Our hearts beat wildly. Suddenly, just ahead of us in the dense bush comes a terrifying, high-pitched shriek, a chilling sound, then the rustling of the troop as they flee away from us into the forest.
For a moment the only sound that I heard was my own heartbeat. Then he appeared. On all fours the silverback leader came crashing through the jungle, sweeping aside everything in his way, bounding toward us! Shoulders three feet apart supported a thick neck, and that famous black face with heavy brows. The ape charged to within eight feet of us! Then he stopped short.
It is difficult to say whether we stood motionless in obedience to our guide’s previous instructions or whether we were simply frozen in our tracks. But there we stood, looking at the beast’s massive head, which seemed to sit directly on his two shoulders, both jaws sticking out conspicuously, and with those huge nostrils opening directly forward. Then he raised himself erect and started beating his chest and roaring, exposing his teeth and the whole interior of his mouth.
Up to this point I had always imagined a gorilla’s teeth to be sparkling white. From that brown-tartar discoloration it was obvious he did not brush well. The high-pitched roars of the great ape are probably the most explosive sound in the animal kingdom. If this roaring was intended to intimidate, it certainly worked well on us.
In no uncertain terms he was letting us know that we should come no closer to his family. For a moment he just stood and stared at us with his sharp, dark-brown eyes, and we could see clearly his hairless lips, ears and nose. His small black ears resembled those of a human. We glanced at our guide and noticed him chewing a leaf, a gesture of reassurance for Mr. Silverback.
The Curiosity Is Mutual
Observing a captive gorilla in a North American or European zoo is one thing. Meeting a family of them on their own home ground is quite another thing. We could see mothers carrying their infants, holding them tightly to the chest with one arm. Other youngsters were riding on mother’s ideally suited broad, flat back with plenty of hair to hold onto. Not much danger of slipping there! To the left, some fifty feet away, three youngsters were enjoying a frolic and playing a game that looked like follow-the-leader. The older gorillas were tolerating them, though themselves showing no signs of wanting to play.
It was evident that curiosity was one of the main reasons why they remained. They obviously wanted to look at us as much as we wanted to observe them. However, they had the advantage, staying behind a light screen of leaves.
Sixty feet away a large black male started climbing a tree, presumably to get a better look at us. His climb was cautious, as he placed his hands carefully and firmly on the tree, at the same time giving us an occasional glance. We watched intently, hoping that no weak or dead branches would break beneath his heavy body. Gorillas have been known to get hurt when weaker branches have broken under them. Once at the top he resumed his occupation of sitting and watching us with keen interest, and eating, breaking off branches and stuffing the leaves into his mouth. After an hour and a half he climbed down, feet first, with his chest toward the trunk of the tree.
A light rain began to fall, but only we humans seemed to notice it. Our guide pointed out a female who quickly moved her hand up a shrub to collect the leaves all in one action and then pushed them all at once into her mouth. Yet another, who looked as if someone had given him a crew cut, carefully bent a stem toward him, broke it and started chewing off the bark and wood to get at the center, much as we would eat corn on the cob. Two others sat grooming themselves on the arms and shoulders, also grooming each other.
A dark-brown ape with longer-than-usual hair looked our way for a couple of minutes, motionless, then suddenly reached out and with a quick twist decapitated a young tree, pushing the leafy top into his mouth. Still another demonstrated how well he could manipulate his fingers by peeling off layers of a tender shoot, the way we might peel a banana. With the exception of a few intermittent barks in rapid succession and some tension-releasing chest beats, together with a sort of grumbling and grunting of contented animals, the group was generally quiet and calm while going about their daily routine.
A Rewarding Experience
It was now getting late and we had ahead of us a four-mile descent of the misty slopes of Mount Kahuzi to the tea plantation where we had left our vehicle. We reflected on the fine experience that we had enjoyed.
Gorillas share their forest with numerous other animals, but the great ape has few enemies. Most are frightened off by its loud roars. Without doubt the greatest predator of apes is man himself. While they suffer from diseases that may kill off as many as 40 to 50 percent of those born, many are killed off by natives for food. In the Republic of Zaïre, Kivu Region, a determined effort is being made in a fairly well-protected park system to perpetuate their existence.
This largest of the apes is of particular interest to persons who may believe in evolution, but these apes do nothing to uphold that theory. Our brief, close-range observations in their mountain home have added even more to our appreciation of these animals as being an unusual and distinct part of Jehovah’s creation. The similarities they may have to humans are simply because we all have a common Designer.