Gorillas in the Wild

Our first view of him was just his hands from behind, reaching up to pull down leaves.

We enter into the jungle clearing and our guide urgently whispers, “come come, they are here!” Our hearts leap into staccato and we exchange looks of wide-eyed delight. We are about to see gorillas! We step through knee deep plants on the forest floor and quickly our attention is drawn up towards the sound of something falling through the forest canopy; a baby gorilla has lost his grip and is plummeting towards the ground, he’s about the size of a one year old child, and I gasp just as he reaches out to catch his fall on a looping vine. As we watch him repeat the falling and grabbing over and over we realize this is a game for his own delight. At this point we become aware that a large family of gorillas surrounds us. We scramble through the groundcover, propelled along by our excited guide. Babies are latched on to their Mama’s thick black hair as they stroll in front of us, while adolescents chasing each other, dart back and forth behind us. “Take pictures” insists our guide, Lambert. “Come here, move forward”, he instructs in the next breath, his excitement apparent. “Look, there he is.” Lambert points at a hillock of vines and leaves and we see nothing but a buzz of flies. And then a massive, wrinkled hand, exactly like a humans but five times larger, reaches up and deftly plucks a series of leaves from a vine. It disappears again behind the mound of vines. I gasp and my heart beats with delight. The silverback!

Tea Plantation Below the National Park

Tristan and are in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. That’s right, the scary part. Except for its not scary, it’s beautiful, and welcoming and incredible. After living in DRC for over two years we decided that there was no way we could say we had lived in Congo without seeing some of its most incredible residents. Kahuzi-Biega became a park in 1970 and spans an area of 6000km².  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and listed on the Parks in Danger list.  Hundreds of rangers, my heroes, protect its resident forest elephants, chimpanzees, and endangered Eastern lowland gorilla from encroaching agriculturalists, poachers, and war lords. 

Me and some of the forest rangers, these guys truely are heros, risking their lives to protect incredible animals

This is the only place in the world where this species of gorilla, the world’s largest, live. There are an estimated 180 individuals remaining. The population size is slowly climbing since it was decimated during the wars of the 90s (the gorilla population was around 600 before this). Our guide has worked in Kahuzi Biega for the last 30 years. He has seen it all.

When we left the rolling tea plantations below and moved into the protected mountainous regions of the eastern park we met another guide. Miniature in stance, with a big filed-to-triangular toothed grin and a presence that makes you realize this is his forest. Our new guide was introduced as “Chocozy”. Lambert explained to us, “Chocozy is a pygmy and his family has always lived in this forest, we employ as many of his tribe as possible to provide them with an alternative to hunting. Plus, they know the forest and its animal inhabitants the best.”

Chocozy, our pygmy guide, has been working in the park for decades

Our guides, Tito, Chocozy, Jamarie, and Lambert

It was at this point that Lambert gave us our little talking to: 1) you will have to wear a mask – we don’t want the gorillas to get a cold; 2) take lots of pictures – its very important that your pictures reach the expats in Kinshasa and the western world so people will come to visit; so they know what is here that needs to be protected; 3) look the silverback in they eye – these gorillas were habituated by a man so they will think you are weak if you don’t (opposed to the Eastern mountain gorillas to the north that were habituated by a woman - you can’t look them in they eye). His last piece of guidance was both stereotypical and nerve racking: If an adolescent pounds his chest at you, go ahead and pound back as an exchange….but don’t do that with the silverback, he will take it as a challenge to his authority. Um ok, check.

Back to the silverback. We ogled at his amazing hands for a moment or two, and then Lambert encouraged us to come around to face him. And there he is. All 359 pounds of him. Munching on leaves and scowling in our general direction. He is about four meters away from us, so close we can hear his breath between the sounds of his molars grinding leaves. His massive body sits in a great mound of course black hair, his chest the blackest leather. He’s exactly like a gorilla costume you found at value village might look, only this is the real deal. Flies buzz around him incessantly and he swats at them distractedly. He sits quite quietly; reaching up for a vine of leaves, tearing in down, deftly eating the leaves off it, repeat. A few times he looks straight into my eyes, as if to say, you may think I’m just zoning out, but I know you’re there.

Tristan and I with Mr. Silverback right behind

True to his look, one minute he was grazing leaves, the next he was on the move, and I was in his path! Lambert grabbed my backpack and yanked me backwards out of the silverback’s way as he brushed past me. Just in time. He lumbered past us and for the first time we could really see his incredible silverback. No it’s not just a formidable name.
An adult male gorilla weights about 170kg and is considered mature at 12 years. Silverbacks generally leave their original family with one or two other young males and remain together until they are able to attract their own group of females. This particular family is about 30

gorillas, the silverback, his ladies, and a number of babies and young males. Lambert himself has been working with this particular family for 30 years and it is for this reason that we can stand here right now. These gorillas have been habituated with humans, they know that we mean them no harm and while they don’t know us, they know and trust Lambert. He can identify and tell the story of each individual.

The silverback was still walking away from us when he stopped and started to urinate. A great golden stream of steaming liquid, shortly we smelled its deep rank odor too. “He’s pissing,” Lambert helpfully informed us in a loud whisper.

The sliverback lumbered further away and up a hill. Lambert asked us if we wanted to follow. Um..YES! So we scrambled up through the vines following him. He stopped about 25 meters from where we first spotted him and plunked down in the same position, delicately munching leaves and occasionally swatting flies. We stood about 3 meters away and he looked me straight in the eye, and then lunged straight at me, stopping about 1 meter from my face and returning to his original position. My heart jumped behind Tristan, and Lambert had to stop me from falling down the hill. Holy Shit! “Don’t worry, he’s just bluffing,” advised Lambert under his breath, as if to prevent the silverback from hearing his counsel. After a few more minutes of staring at each other from behind our masks and wondering if we were going to be charged again Lambert gently suggested that it was time to give him a break and visit some of the others. We agreed, taking one last, one more last, and one very last look, knowing this may be our only chance to see this magnificent creature and his family in the wild.

***The End***

The silverback and his silverback

Baby playing on a branch near us

Mom carrying her baby around with her

Walking through the tea plantations