That Takes Ovaries! by Rivka Solomon

Author:Rivka Solomon [Solomon, Rivka]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-56621-8
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2002-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

Gorilla Dreams

maite sureda

Ever since I was twelve years old, when I first learned about Jane Goodall’s work with chimpanzees, I longed to follow in her footsteps: a woman, out in the wild, studying primates by herself. Unlike Goodall, though, my imagination was fired not by chimps but by gorillas. I was awed by their size, power, and grace. It never crossed my mind, however, to actually go to Africa to see and study them; it was always just a dream. My reality was my husband and two dogs here in the United States.

Then one day I saw that a university biology department was looking for a minority biologist to study birds in the Dja Wildlife Reserve in southern Cameroon, West Africa. Speechless, I read the announcement over and over. I was perfect, an Hispanic woman with all the experience they requested. But to me, the birds were a side interest. The most exciting aspect of the project was its location; that was where western lowland gorillas were found. I have to give it a shot, I thought, sending in my application. Within a week I heard from the project coordinator, we met, and she offered me the job on the spot. Two months later I was on a plane headed for Africa.

Before I left I brushed up on all the gorilla information I could find. As a result, I was familiar with quite a bit by the time I arrived. Once there, I asked members of the Baka tribe, who lived near the reserve, to teach me everything they knew about the gorillas native to the region. Generously, they taught me how to recognize gorilla sign, like food remains, feces, knuckle-prints, nests, and smells. Unfortunately for me, though, when the Baka sensed a gorilla close by, they would make noise to scare it away. And with good reason: Adult male gorillas, known as silverbacks, can be huge—five and a half feet tall, and up to four hundred pounds of pure muscle. They have been known to bend the steel frames of cages and rip apart a man’s leg with a single bite. Running from one would be pointless. They plow through thick jungle vegetation like a bulldozer, whereas we Homo sapiens could only slowly machete our way out. By making a racket to scare away the gorillas, my guides felt they were protecting me and being respectfully cautious. I soon realized that if I wanted to see any gorillas, I would have to go into the forest alone.

Monday through Saturday I studied hornbills (my official reason for being at the reserve), but in the evenings I collected data on the gorilla sign that camp members and I had encountered throughout the day. Each Saturday night I planned a Sunday gorilla outing according to where the most recent sign was found. The next morning, my “day off,” I’d wake at 5:00 A.M. and sit beneath a tree, listening to the incredible sound of insects in the jungle. When the sun rose, the birds started to sing and the insects quieted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.