Chimp & See Talk

Habituated Gorillas - but still....

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    I just came across this movie from a wildlife photographer beeing suddenly surrounded by Gorillas. I don't know where it is nor if occurencies like this are quite common, but still I think it shows nicely how lovable those huge wild animals are when not threated:

    Movie at viralvo.com

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Hey @|Boelyn

    This was at Bwindi at one of the forest lodges inside the park.

    In general, tourists (and all people) are advised to stay away from making contact with gorillas and other apes since there are diseases we can give to them (and them to us of course).
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24450064, http://www.gorilladoctors.org/human-virus-linked-to-deaths-of-endangered-mountain-gorillas/,

    This is actually a huge concern at some field sites and why at Tai for example all researchers have to wear masks when they are near the chimps. For the 2 mountain gorilla populations, there are vet teams that treat the animals when they get sick (and are even often vaccinated) but a) that is a luxury we don't have at most sites, b) its dangerous to rely on that in case there is a very virulent and deadly strain of something that spreads before treatment can be given and c) we don't know how such human intervention affects the behaviours we are trying to study and dynamics of the group, so a less is more strategy is usually adopted regarding any intervention.

    All to say that i ABSOLUTELY think this is amazing, and gorillas really are gentle giants in seems!!! but the best thing we can do for them is to not make contact, no matter how badly we want to do so. 😃

    Thanks for sharing 😃!!!

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Thanks for your anser, @MimiA, I thought this must be a lodge because of the lamps and wondered that the Gorillas were absolutely not shy. You are certainly right that nobody should make contact - but obviously these Gorillas did not listen to you and decided to make contact 😄 😉

    What I do not understand is why there is no fence around the camp (to protect the apres not the human!) or why they build a camp in the vicinity of wild gorillas in the first place?

    Anyhow, I think I would have peed my pants in such a situation. Imagine: a female is grooming you and the male is sitting just about a meter behind you - pure adrenaline!

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    I think, one point might be that the gorillas are not staying in the park. This paper by the MPI gorilla research group mentioned that 11 of the 13 known gorilla groups left the park ocassionally during a 13-months study period , e.g. to feed on crops (and apparently they like tea as well, as leaves, not to drink). So, you could fence the park, or the camp, or the nearby villages. But I am not sure whether this would be a general solution. Fencing would at least not my choice.

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Hi guys, this is of course a hot topic, so what follows is just my opinion 😃 :

    Fences are a very controversial topic in general (eg: http://conservationmagazine.org/2009/07/on-the-fence/) If you build a fence you block many types of animals out, so it is less habitat for them to use and you may be encroaching on established territories as well. Poachers often cut pieces of the fence and use it to make snares. People can cut holes in fences making them dangerous and requiring patrols which cost more money. People often use the forest and so they also may see the fence negatively as keeping them out. And of the course the fence itself costs money and with such limited funds for conservation, all the cons of fence building never seem worth the cost.

    There is one exception i can think of, and it is in the other mountain gorilla populations in the Virungas: https://virunga.org/archives/a-beautiful-electric-fence/ The Virungas are a very special case, a pretty small park, fairly well funded and under the direction of the Belgian Prince Emmanuel de Merode. Almost all the gorillas in the Virungas are habituated for research or tourism and are monitored very closely including having a medical team for the gorillas.

    Furthermore, the lodges that are around Bwindi (and other ecotourism sites) are designed to be fairly unobtrusive. The lodge where this video was taken is actually a luxury tented camp, with the tents embedded within the forest. Ecotourists generally like to be in the forested environment too, so you need the areas to pull double duty, the outdoorsy, part-of-nature feel for the tourists and habitat for the animals. Add to that, that all forests experience edge effects: that is, the periphery of forests are generally of lower quality that the inner parts of the forest. This is why having one as circular as possible protected area will always be more desirable that many smaller patches or a very long narrow park of the same surface size. The lodges are usually put in these edges (often called "buffer zones") which means the animals will still come to them and cutting these areas off would push the edge effect deeper into the park. The question of why we build camps at all is because ecotourism dollars really do help the surrounding communities have an incentive to protect these parks.

    As a side note, when we study apes and we notice them approaching us, we always slowly get out of the way so that we don't "accidentally" make contact (since the apes indeed dont know the rules 😉 )

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Thanks for the links @AnLand and @MimiA and the explanations. Some interesting alternatives for fences indeed and where applicable even a wired fence seems to do a good job.

    There is so much controversy around this topic so I think it's better played by "give and take" than nothing at all to protect the wildlife.

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Yes, thanks @MimiA for the texts and your thoughts. From my side, it was more a general disagreement to build a fence around something (and the more philosophical exercise of thinking what side of the fence is outside and what inside, so who is free and who's not). I did not think a bout the smaller implications (snares, danger through imperfect fences) and also did not know about the larger ones. The ideas about species-specific barriers and even bio-fences is quite interesting.

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