HABITS OF GORILLAS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1934, Page 15

HABITS OF GORILLAS

QUIET WHEN NOT MOLESTED. SELDOM ATTACK HUMANS. The widespread belief which has arisen, chiefly from film photographers and museum collectors, that the gorilla is one of the most ferocious of all wild animals is not supported by professional game wardens. Remarkable evidence of the gorilla’s peaceful nature when unmolested is provided by the report of Captain C. R. S. Pitman, the thief game warden of Uganda, who quotes the reports of prospectors who countered the beasts while searching for gold in tire Kayonso Forest of Western Kigezi. Even officially the Kayonsa gdrilla had been .regarded as “an unapproachable brute, wickedly tempered from constant conflict with the local natives, whose crops* it habitually raided; a creature whose company was better avoided than sought.” But the opening of a new road has made the locality more accessible, and the extension of prospecting activities in the forest made a visit by the game warden imperative to ascertain the extent of the disturbance and what effect it was having on the gorillas. It had previously been considered that the gorilla population of the Kayonsa Forest was probably less than 30, and the warden was therefore gratified to know that there were probably nearer 80 in the locality. A prospector who sent some notes to the department said that his work had at times taken him to places where the gorillas lived. He had found them very peaceful, and was able to get within 20ft of them. He had only been threatened once, by an old male, but even this one

was not savage. The gorilla was first attacked by the prospector’s dog, and its sole aim was to catch the dog. It could easily have caught and killed the prospector’s native servant, but did not molest him at all. “I maintain,” he wrote, "that unless provoked they are docile. The gorillas sometimes raid the nearby shambas, but I have never heard of them attacking the natives, and the natives leave them alone, except to chase them away from their property. The game warden himself was able to study at close quarters a troop of five. They consisted of “utterly peaceable, almost semi-domesticated specimens, which were feeding in a forest valley less than a mile away from a small mountain settlement. The Wambutte guides fearlessly led us to within 10 paces of the tree, and the old male at once noticed us and scrutinised us keenly, but went on feeding. He turned to look at us again, ate a few more leaves and then, descending about 6ft, sat in a huge upright fork, legs dangling, the excessively long arms grasping nearby branches, and an interested, though kindly, expression on his face, the enormous head framed in a thick foliage of long shaggy hair. The presence cf prospectors and the general proximity of this gorilla habitat to native settlements has apparently had no disturbing effect on the animals, and even a lot of blasting seems only to have scared them away temporarily. It is probable that since the forest has now been made accessible, the creation of a gorilla sanctuary might by some people be considered urgent. The game warden remarks: “This interesting anthropoid certainly needs protection from the cameraman and pseudo-investigator, who disturb flagrantly and unnecessarily, then irritate and finally have to take life in ‘self-defence.’ But personal acquaintance with the locality concerned suggests that immunity from molestation can be effected simply, without creating a sanctuary."