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) has - through her research and her magnum opus, the best-seller (made into a film in 1988) Gorillas in the Mist - undoubtedly contributed to the defence of the mountain gorilla. It is true that in the first half of the 20th century, the creation of Albert National Park (from which Virunga Park in Congo and Volcanoes Park in Rwanda were created), Bwindi Forest Reserve and Mgahinga Sanctuary (Uganda) were designed to preserve the great ape. It is true that the American zoologist George Schaller, who described the environment and social organization of gorillas at the end of the 1950s and 1960s, contributed to the change in Westerners' view of our simian friend. However, it was Dian Fossey, who was the real "itching powder" for her scientific colleagues, poachers and traffickers of all kinds, who inspired the regional conservation policies undertaken since her assassination in December 1985 (her body lies in Rwanda, in the small gorilla cemetery that she had built). In Uganda, the designation of Bwindi Forest and Mgahinga Sanctuary as a national park in 1991 contributed to this momentum. However, it was not until the second half of the 2000s that the strategy developed for gorilla protection was successful. The task was, admittedly, particularly difficult. For example, the Gorilla beringei beringei was, and still is, faced with the destruction of its habitat. In the past, the forest extended without interruption from Bwindi to the Virunga range. However, under human pressure, the forest cover of Kigezi has been reduced by 80% since the beginning of the 20th century. The conversion of wooded areas to agricultural land and human needs for firewood are among the reasons for this clearing. Fragmentation and destruction of the former forest area has 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 for babies, whose price on the black market can reach several thousand dollars. These raids often result in collateral damage as adult gorillas are willing to die to save their young. In addition, traps set to catch antelope, bushpigs and others can maim or even kill gorillas. Finally, the political instability in the region has had a negative impact on the primates: stress linked to repeated encounters with humans (refugees, militiamen, etc.) who have taken over the national parks, massive destruction of their habitat, intense poaching and over-mortality caused by mines laid by the warring parties, etc. To mitigate these protean dangers, the Ugandan authorities, in collaboration with researchers and civil society organisations, adopted a series of measures in the 1990s and 2000s: increasing the number of patrols in Mgahinga and Bwindi parks, raising awareness of conservation issues among schoolchildren, setting up buffer zones (mainly made up of tea trees) between protected areas and cultivated plots to prevent any conflict between great apes and farmers, creating a team of specialised veterinarians, and launching research programmes (ethology, primatology, ecology, etc.) to better understand our cousin, launch a new project to protect the apes) to better understand our cousin, the launch of a trans-boundary conservation policy (DRC, Uganda and Rwanda), assistance in the conversion of populations living in or from the forest before 1991 and, last but not least, the development of tourism, generating employment opportunities for local communities as well as a significant financial windfall allocated to the safeguarding of the gorilla and its environment. Notwithstanding the cosmetic nature of some of these measures, the results have been commendable, with the total number of mountain gorillas increasing from around 700 in 2000 to over 1,060 in 2020!
Gorillas in the time of Covid-19
On the face of it, the Covid-19 pandemic appears to be good for gorillas. Indeed, twelve births were recorded in the space of four months (September-December 2020) in Uganda. This is the first time this has happened since the introduction of conservation measures in the early 1990s. For comparison, only two newborns were born in 2019. This baby boom, also observed in neighbouring Rwanda, has been welcomed, as it should be, by all those involved in the protection of the primate. However, it has brought up the thorny issue of human-gorilla interaction. Thus, contrary to those in charge of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and its partners (NGOs, research institutes, etc.), who saw this population increase 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 these experts, it is the absence of visitors (and the stress they cause) that would explain, much more than the conservationist strategy mentioned above, this demographic phenomenon. The ever-increasing human interference (35,000 tourists engaged in gorilla tracking in 2018) in the areas where the gorillas roam is also a cause for concern for scientists: the great apes are very sensitive to diseases carried by Homo sapiens and could be severely affected by Covid-19. New measures (wearing masks, etc.) have been added to the old ones (safety distance, etc.) in order to prevent any contamination. With a constantly increasing population density and an increase in the number of groups whose interactions (often violent, even deadly) are multiplying, the virus would undoubtedly spread very quickly. Finally, the loss of the traditional livelihood of locals from tourism has led to an upsurge in poaching: 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..
