Communication with Gorillas
Volcano National Park employees who live amongst mountain primates must speak their language.
The job of those who live amongst the world's only indigenous population of mountain gorillas is two-fold: guide tourists and ward off poachers.
Francis Ndagijimana looks into the eyes of a 200 kilogram silverback mountain gorilla and makes a deep grunting sound.
It is an average day’s work for the Volcano National Park guide who leads tourists up steep hills and into thick bamboo forests to spend an hour with the world’s only natural habitat for the large apes. These hairy primates made their home country Rwanda famous through the writings of famed wild life activist Diane Fossey. Those writings were later popularized by the movie "Gorillas in the Mist" after Fossey's mysterious death at the hands of poachers.
Park guides are now charged with the task of protecting these gorillas from poachers, and they're armed with AK-47 rifles to help do that. They also deal with a daily dose of tourism.
Ndagijimana is one of 10 guides who trek into the Virungas every day, and being able to make just the right grunt at the right time is crucial for the safety of both the park guests and the gorillas.
“Gorillas are just like human beings,” Ndagijimana says of the animals he works with on a daily basis. “You can communicate with them by grunting or using hand gestures.”
Before taking the gorilla’s guests of the day over the four-foot high rock wall and into the forest, the guide lays down some basic rules. It is important for humans to not make contact, to avoid passing on germs. Gorillas are genetically very similar to humans – leaving them with the ability to catch our diseases but without the immune system to fight them off.
When one curious gorilla moves towards the group, Ndagijimana waves his hand at it as though he were shooing a flock of birds away. The primate quickly responds and recedes a few steps into the forest.
This inter-species communication is made possible by research done at the Karisoke research centre located among the Virunga volcanoes. Fossey started the research centre after studying gorillas in their natural habitat for almost 20 years, before her murder there at the hands of an unknown machete-wielding assailant.
There are three families of gorillas used for research, says park warden Justin Rurangilwa. Researchers have identified about 25 different gorilla vocalisations, and guides regularly use seven of these.
“We have different vocalisations for different situations,” explains Rurangilwa. “We have one to tell them to move away… we have one to tell them the people there are strong.”
But much like people, gorillas don’t always do what they are told.
As one guide moves along a skinny path between bamboo shoots, a gorilla emerges from the forest and grabs hold of his jacket. The ape pulls the guide back a couple steps before he is able to shoo the gorilla away, smiling all the while.
“The gorillas will sometimes joke with the guides,” Rurangilwa says. No one has ever been injured by a gorilla on a trek into their habitat, despite that the apes are strong enough to toss around an average-sized person like a rag doll.
The gorillas seem to have become familiar with the park trackers who spend all day long with them, Rurangilwa adds. To guard against poachers, the trackers follow the groups of gorillas during the day and leave them at night.
“Every morning the gorilla trackers return to the place they left the gorillas the last night,” he says. There are five different bases, one for each group of gorillas.
The Susa group – the largest group with 38 gorillas – will move higher into the hills during the dry season so they can more easily feast on up to 40 pounds of vegetation a day (imagine eating about 25 heads of lettuce). As the apes move into the forest, the base will also move.
After tracking the huge, black haired beasts since the 1970s, the park introduces a new group of people to the gorillas every day. Since January, there has only been one day when the gorillas didn’t receive guests.
“It was very rainy that day,” Rurangilwa says. Each day that guides set off in search of gorillas, they are almost guaranteed to find them. But it can take several hours of hiking up a steep incline and through stinging nettles to get there.
For guide Ndagijimana, the hike has become routine. After exactly one hour with the gorillas, he leads the visitors of the day back down the steep hill, moving over slippery mud and uneven rocks with relative ease.
Tomorrow he’ll return with a new set of human beings to marvel at the size and grace of the silverback gorilla and the rest of his group. It is just another day’s work.
