Endangered Mountain Gorillas in Tanzania and Rwanda

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Each gorilla group is ruled and protected by a silverback.
Each gorilla group is ruled and protected by a silverback.
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As we approached, this patriarch's reaction was a bored—but impressive—glance.
As we approached, this patriarch's reaction was a bored—but impressive—glance.
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A close-up of a baby's face.
A close-up of a baby's face.
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Big, intelligent eyes and soft, brown, puppy-like fur make the curious and friendly gorilla youngsters a delight to behold. One wants to (and perhaps could) give them a hug, but all such contact is discouraged for fear of transmission of human diseases.
Big, intelligent eyes and soft, brown, puppy-like fur make the curious and friendly gorilla youngsters a delight to behold. One wants to (and perhaps could) give them a hug, but all such contact is discouraged for fear of transmission of human diseases.
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Six feet tall and weighing some 400 pounds, the 12-year-old, sexually mature gorilla develops cranial crests and a silver
Six feet tall and weighing some 400 pounds, the 12-year-old, sexually mature gorilla develops cranial crests and a silver "saddle" across his back.
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A young gorilla and a park guide converse in a grunt-like language.
A young gorilla and a park guide converse in a grunt-like language.
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Females, who give birth only once every four to five years, keep watchful eyes on all the group's youngsters.
Females, who give birth only once every four to five years, keep watchful eyes on all the group's youngsters.
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A baby feeding on the bark of a tree.
A baby feeding on the bark of a tree.

More than 120,000 people are living off a two-kilometer strip of land bordering Rwanda’s Virunga Volcanoes National Park, the home of the endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei). In fact, almost every available spot of earth in this tiny, central African country has been divided into small plots of corn, peas, pineapples, bananas, and sorghum. Such plantings are staggered up to the very tops of the steep mountain slopes, and the intense cultivation makes one wonder where this nation, the most densely populated on the African continent, will ever find room to put the doubled population it expects within the next two decades!

An Ecological Lesson

Only a few years ago, 22,000 acres–or nearly half–of the thickly forested Volcanoes National Park, the first such reserve ever established in Africa, were given over to the cultivation of pyrethrum. (This white daisy-like chrysanthemum is the source of a natural insecticide and provides Rwanda with one of its few cash crops.) Shortly thereafter, residents found that, as a result of the destruction of so much of the precipitation producing rain forests, the surface streams in the area had dried up. For the first time, then, the local population began to become aware of the value of leaving this beautiful montane rain-forest ecosystem undisturbed.

Even so, the pressures being exerted upon the remaining park area are immense. The wooden stakes marking its boundaries are often surreptitiously moved back by local residents hoping to gain even a few more feet of farmland or a tree or two to cut for scarce cooking fuel. In spite of this, the money necessary to install more permanent cement boundary markers has been slow to materialize.

Poachers, too, are always a menace to the park’s wildlife, which–in addition to its famous gorillas–includes nearly 100 forest elephants (rare, smaller relatives of the savanna pachyderm), buffalo, black-fronted and yellow-backed duikers, bushbuck (notable for their dog-like bark), tree hyraxes, giant forest hogs, giant rats, and approximately 100 species of birds. Three other species of primates occupy the park–the blue monkey, the golden monkey, and Bosman’s potto.

  • Published on May 1, 1984
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