GORILLA SANCTUARIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

GORILLA SANCTUARIES.

JUNGLE EXPERIMENT. HOME OF TWO MILLION ACRES TOURISTS BARRED. The Belgian Government has made a loan of two million francs, I learn, to the administration of the Pare National Albert, with which to begin at once the construction of the headquarters station for zoological and other scientific research in the Congo, writes a correspondent of the London "Observer."

The chosen site of twenty acres is at the Government post at Rutshuru, on the bank of the river. At Rutshuru will be placed a library

containing all available scientific treat

ises relating to the fauna, flora, and geology of Central Africa; a students' museum, for which will be collected all the creatures of the region; laboratories equipped for the use of zoologists, geologists, botanists and seismologists; and a photographic wing and chemical laboratory. Though only one degree from the Equator, the station has a temperate climate, owing to its 5000 ft elevation. It commands a view of both active and extinct volcanoes.

There are to be a group of these huge Congo wild life sanctuaries, which will ensure the protection of the already fastdwindling numbers of gorillas. Gorilla life is to be filmed, as well as studied. Half A Million Acres. The Pare National Albert is already in being, with a strict code of protective laws. It is half a million acres in extent. Pare Leopold and Pare Ruwenzori, the new projects, will comprise respectively one million and half a million acres. Still more pares may be established.

The King of the Belgians is enthusiastic over the creation of these huge wild Nature preserves and has personally taken an important part in their planning. Unlike wild life preserves in other countries, the great Congo pares will not be thrown open to tourists, lest tho habits of the animals become changed and they become in time eemi-domesti-cated. Nor will grazing nor agricultural development be permitted. Certain areas, moreover, will he absolutely closed, even to scientists on the administrative staff and their visiting colleagues. At least one quarter of the 500,000 acre Pare National Albert, for instance, is absolutely private, mainly to prevent the gorillas becoming accustomed to the eight of man and copying his waye.

A Royal decree forbids, under penalty of penal servitude, or a heavy fine, or both, the pursuit, capture, killing, or molesting in any way of any kind, of ' wild animal including creatures reputed to be harmful, the taking or destroying of eggs of wild birds; the cutting down, destroying, or removal of any uncultivated plant; or the making of any excavation, embankment, boring or any operation of a nature to change the aspect of the ground or of the vegetation. Unless provided with a special permit, no one but officials and others properly qualified may enter the pare, or circulate, camp, or sojourn there, or introduce dogs, traps, or firearms, or possess or transport or export skins or other parts of wild animals or uncultivated vegetable products. Lands now occupied by natives or other private persons are to bo taken over, at a valuation, by the authorities.

Even in neighbouring territory, attacks on the gorilla are forbidden. Around the pare itself a protective zone has been established, in which nobody, native or white, may hunt, fish, or hew down trees. An exception is made in tho case of a few natives living in this zone, but thev are not allowed to use firearms in hunting their food. Tho Belgian Government pays tho purely administrative expenses of the pare, maintaining a corps of conservators and native police. The money for running the research station at Rutshuru is being privately subscribed by contributors in various countries.

The Pare National Albert is in tho Kivu region of the Belgian Congo, almost in the centre of Central Africa. It includes the home of the rare mountain gorilla (G berengei). A Picturesque Scene.

This gorilla forest is fov.-id at a height of 9000 to 12,000 ft above sea level, on tho cool slopes of a group of extinct volcanoes—a ve.ry picturesque vista of giant gnarled trees, often festooned with ferns, vines, and lichens, with brilliant-hued orchids flourishing on the mossy branches. It is in the forks of the lower limbs of these great trees that the gorillas make their homes, on dumps of leaves, branches, and dry grass, which look like huge birds' nests.

When Du Chaillu was trekking after gorilla he was told that they had been known to abduct -vomen and carry them home to live in their nrsts. They also, he was assured, have an unpleasant little way of crouching on the lower branches of trees when they hear men reproaching, suddenly lowering themselves by their long arms, and strangling them with their feet. Other native informants told him of a party of men, taken captive by a company of gorillas, who were presently set free—after their fingernails and toe-nails had been ripped out. Through the gorilla forest range herds of elephant, and in the vicinity are numerous leopards which sometimes prey on gorilla children. On the sandy plain, some thousands of feet lower, and along the swampy verge of Lake Ed /ard, are herds of zebra and antelope, and hippopotami frequent the lake itself and the Rutshuru river.

The new Pare Leopold is to be created near the northern border of the Congo. North and east of Pare National Albert will be Pare Ruwenzori, in the Ruwenzori range, adjoining the Uganda frontier. These additional 1,500,000 acres of preserve are of particular interest, as they comprise the homes of many white rhinoceros, okapi, lechwe, and giant Derby eland. Among the birds of the region are the Gelo River crowned hornbill, the Ruwenzori lourie, the secretary, Stegmartn's hornbill, the Uganda brewn parrot, the southern little bee-eater, the Ruwenzori wood hoopoe, and the Swahili wood owl.