Preliminary Gorillas
Where does the mountain gorilla come from? Who is he? Where does he go? Before sketching an answer to the last question of this triptych, let's sketch the portrait of this famous Gorilla beringei beringei. Let's go back in time to identify the origins of this quadruman with which we share 98.4% of our genetic heritage, a little less than the chimpanzee (98.8%) and the bonobo (98.7%) but a little more than the orangutan (97%). Phylogenetically speaking, the gorilla belongs to the same order (primates), the same family (hominids) and the same subfamily (hominins) asHomo sapiens. Descending from common simian parents, the ancestors of man and his close cousin followed different paths some nine million years ago. From the former (hominins) came the human and chimpanzee lineages, and from the latter emerged the genus Gorilla. The latter, which is of primary interest to us, is the subject of much debate and controversy within the scientific community. At stake in this maelstrom of erudite discussions is the classification of gorillas. Indeed, about a million years ago, during a pronounced ice age, the forest area of Central Africa was considerably reduced. It was during this climatic event that the gorillas were separated by a thousand to two thousand kilometers from the last isolated pockets of forest. This geographical distance led to speciation, i.e. the formation ipso facto of two distinct species: the western gorilla and the eastern gorilla. During the last ice age, it happened again. The eastern gorillas split again as the jungle receded. This gave rise to the subspecies Gorilla beringei beringei (mountain gorilla), which is found on the slopes of the Virunga Mountains and in the Bwindi forest (in present-day DRC, Uganda and Rwanda), and Gorilla beringei graueri (eastern lowland gorilla), which is found to the east of present-day Congo-Kinshasa. You now have the elements in hand to understand the academic exchanges of views and problems mentioned above: do all gorillas belong to the same species divided into subspecies? Or are there two different species (eastern and western gorillas), each divided into two subspecies? In recent years, however, the two-species thesis seems to have gained ground. Let's take a closer look at our dear mountain gorilla. As its name indicates, it lives at high altitudes (between 1,500 and 4,300 m), its thick coat allowing it to resist the dampness of its habitat. Vegetarian, its larder is composed of more than a hundred species (bamboo, Galium ruwenzoriense...), of which it consumes flowers, leaves, shoots and berries, providing it with the necessary substances (fibres, sugars, water...) for a balanced diet. To meet this healthy but demanding diet, adults ingest 18 kg (at the very least) of plants daily. Consequently, the alpha male is particularly well decoupled: 190 kg of muscles for a height generally reaching 170 cm. Diurnal, this anthropoid mastoc, without tail but with small ears, 5 cm canines and an imposing sagittal crest, is identifiable by its fingerprints and nostrils, unique to each individual. Very sociable, it lives in groups. Non-territorial, the group is typically made up of about ten specimens: a silverback , or dominant male, protecting and guiding the clan, one or two blackbacks , young adults playing the role of sentinels, three or four mature females (from 10-12 years old), reproducing exclusively with the patriarch, and their cubs (gestation lasts eight and half months). Within the group, which may be larger and include one or more additional silverbacks (brothers or adult offspring of the alpha male), social cohesion is strengthened during grooming sessions or games between the female and her offspring. Finally, more than twenty vocalizations (screams, grunts, belches...) allow communication between the members of the small community.
Dian Fossey and after
The famous Californian primatologist Dian Fossey (1932-1985) - through her research and her magnum opus, the best-seller Gorillas in the Mist (made into a film in 1988) - undoubtedly contributed to the defense of the mountain gorilla. In the first half of the 20th century, the creation of Albert National Park (from which Virunga Park in the Congo and Volcanoes Park in Rwanda evolved), Bwindi Forest Reserve and Mgahinga Sanctuary (Uganda) were all designed to preserve the great ape. It's true that the American zoologist George Schaller, who described the environment and social organization of gorillas at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, contributed to a change in Western attitudes towards our simian friend. However, it was Dian Fossey, a real "itching powder" for fellow scientists, poachers and traffickers of all kinds, who inspired the regional conservation policies undertaken since her assassination in December 1985 (her body rests in Rwanda, in the small gorilla cemetery she had built). In Uganda, the Bwindi Forest and Mgahinga Sanctuary were declared a national park in 1991. However, it wasn't until the second half of the 2000s that the strategy developed to protect the gorilla proved successful. The task was, admittedly, a particularly arduous one. The Gorilla beringei beringei was, and remains, faced with the destruction of its habitat. In the past, the forest stretched seamlessly from Bwindi to the Virunga mountain range. However, under human pressure, Kigezi's forest cover has been reduced by 80% since the dawn of the 20th century. The conversion of wooded areas to farmland and human needs for firewood are among the reasons for this clearing. Fragmentation and destruction of the former woodland have isolated the different gorilla groups, subsequently affecting the genetic diversity of the subspecies. Poaching is also a constant threat. A prized hunting trophy in colonial times, the gorilla remains a potential target for poachers. Rarely killed for its meat, this primate is regularly captured to feed the illegal animal trade. This is particularly true of baby gorillas, which can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. This often results in collateral damage, as adult gorillas are prepared to die to save their young. In addition, the traps set to catch antelopes, bushpigs and other animals can mutilate or even kill gorillas.Finally, political instability in the region has had a negative impact on the primates: stress linked to the iterative encounters with humans (refugees, militiamen...) who have taken over the national parks, massive destruction of their habitat, intense poaching and excess mortality caused by mines laid by the belligerents... To mitigate these protean dangers, the Ugandan authorities, in collaboration with researchers and civil society organizations, adopted a series of measures during the 1990s and 2000s: increasing the number of patrols in the Mgahinga and Bwindi parks, raising awareness of conservation issues among schoolchildren, establishing buffer zones (mainly made up of tea bushes) between protected areas and cultivated plots to prevent any conflict of use between great apes and farmers, setting up a team of specialized veterinarians, boosting research programs (ethology, primatology, ecology...) to better understand our cousin, launched in 1999) to better understand our cousin, the launch of a trans-border conservation policy (DRC, Uganda and Rwanda), assistance with the conversion of populations living in or from the forest prior to 1991 and, last but not least, the development of tourism, generating employment opportunities for local communities as well as a substantial financial windfall allocated to safeguarding the gorilla and its environment. Notwithstanding the cosmetic nature of some of these measures, the results were commendable, with the total number of mountain gorillas rising from around 700 in 2000 to over 1,060 by 2024!
Gorillas during Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have been good for gorillas. No deaths of mountain gorillas due to Covid-19 have been reported, and twelve births were registered in the space of four months (September-December 2020) in Uganda. This was the first time since conservation measures were introduced in the early 1990s. By comparison, only two newborns were born in 2019. This baby-boom, also seen in neighboring Rwanda, was welcomed, as it should have been, by all those involved in protecting the primate. However, it has also raised the thorny issue of human-gorilla interaction. Thus, contrary to those in charge of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and its partners (NGOs, research institutes...), who saw this demographic surge as the crowning achievement of their efforts, some experts have correlated these happy events with the closure of Bwindi and Mgahinga national parks in the second and third quarters of 2020. For the latter, it is the absence of visitors (and the stress they cause) that explains this demographic phenomenon, far more than the conservationist strategy mentioned above. The loss of livelihood generated by the absence of tourism has also led to an upsurge in poaching at this time of Covid-19: in June 2020, Rafiki, a 25-year-old silverback leading a group of 17 individuals, was killed by a poacher hunting duiker and bushpig. The perpetrator was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison..
