The Gorilla His Dreams
An American tourist in Rwanda came between a silverback gorilla and the object of the ape's affections, a young woman in the tour group. The enraged gorilla took exception to that and grabbed the man and tried to drag him off into the jungle. The entire sequence was caught in a series of pictures published today in The Daily Mail.
One moment he was standing with a video camera as the magnificent creature quietly held court before a group of sightseeers. The next, he was being dragged backwards through the undergrowth to a terrifyingly uncertain fate.
Quite what provoked the normally placid silverback into stamping his authority so forcefully is uncertain.
He has long been the undisputed leader of a family of gorillas in the 39-strong Susa group that inhabits the Virunga mountain forests on the northern border of Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo, and is well used to dealing with troublemakers.
He is even quite chummy with humans, whose money and patronage helps support the planet's desperately dwindling gorilla population.
There are currently fewer than 650 individuals scattered across several hundred square miles of this region and, without help, they could vanish.
So it's clearly a jungle out there – and sometimes homo sapiens can suffer the consequences for taking liberties with our most intelligent mammalian cousins.
The clue probably came when the male started to parade intimidatingly close to the group of tourists, led by local rangers – beating his breast like a drum.
Suddenly, he charged at the crowd. Then he snatched a blue-anoraked man by one ankle and dragged him towards the trees.
Maybe the thrill of seeing gorillas in the wild had caused the tourist to forget the advice the rangers would have given before everyone set off on the trek – no flashguns… no noise… don't point… look away if they make eye contact… and melt into the ground if they charge.
It worked a treat for Sir David Attenborough – but whispering subservience patently wasn't adequate this time. One likely explanation is that the tourist – an American – got between the male gorilla and the true object of its attentions, a young female on the far side of the group.
It is not a good sign that the gorillas are now demanding tribute in the form of tourist brides. Where's Tarzan when you really need him?
By feeblemind, Sunday, 6 January , 2008 @ 12:52 pm
Gaius, you almost have a story a day illustrating people’s lack of respect for nature. People going out into the wild to cut down Christmas trees or going out to play in the snow and getting lost, taunting tigers and now this. As you have said repeatedly, wild animals are WILD. Nature is not a Disney theme park.
By NortonPete, Sunday, 6 January , 2008 @ 3:34 pm
Feeblemind,
On tract, I agree with everything you said.
Now for another side of this.
What if this male bimbo tour participant was trying to attract the Gorrilla? Like he thought he was the hottest thing in town?
Gorrillas shouldn’t be flirted with..
By feeblemind, Sunday, 6 January , 2008 @ 4:55 pm
Heh heh. OK NortonPete. That could be the case. The thought of flirting with a gorilla exceeds the limits of my feeble imagination. Would you care to speculate what that type of flirting would consist of? If you answer, keep in mind that Gaius’ kids read this blog and they are pure and innocent. Heh heh…… ohhhhh me.
By MikeM, Sunday, 6 January , 2008 @ 7:25 pm
I suspect the female that he might have been attracted to was of his own species — but the the poor phrasing does give a hilarious mind-picture.
By Gaius, Sunday, 6 January , 2008 @ 7:38 pm
No, it was a human woman who bore a striking resemblance to Faye Wray, according to my sources.
I can’t afford to hire good sources, though. This gig pays bupkis.