The visit to Virungas National Park in Rwanda continues for Houston Zoo Primate Supervisor Lynn Killam. A very exciting day in the midst of an already quite amazing record of her trip thus far…
The next day’s trip to observe Golden Monkeys was cloudy but the rain had thankfully ceased. Re-energized by sleep and breakfast, we were again ready for another climb. After meeting our new guide and a group of tourists who joined us for this leg of our journey, we headed off up another slope. This climb was a bit more manageable, although once the animals had been spotted and we came off the trail, we found ourselves up to our hips in thick vines. Suddenly a flash of orange-gold became apparent in the midst of bamboo and tangled vegetation, and we realized we were in the midst of a huge group of Golden Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti).
* Male golden Monkey overseeing group
Monkeys of every golden hue in an orange rainbow surrounded us. Rowdy juveniles were encircling us and running practically underneath us, as if teasing the newcomers. The more dignified adults groomed one another further away: mothers rifled through their golden infants’ fur and big males watched over the troop from bamboo perches.
We enjoyed an hour of entrancing primate behavior, as youngsters nimbly climbed to the top of bamboo stalks, bent them down to their fullest extent, and dropped off into apparent mid-air, landing many yards below us on tousled vines. Three youngsters played hide-and-go-seek with each other practically under our feet, balling up into play-fights and then sprinting away into invisibility. The joy of just being seemed to rule their lives. We felt very lucky to have been able to have a glimpse into their private world.
*Female Golden monkey in bamboo
Gorillas were our ultimate goal, and they did not disappoint. The anticipation of our visit was surprisingly stressful: Would we see them? Would it rain, preventing photos and video taping? Might we get sick prior to our visit and be unable to go?
The worry dissipated as we found ourselves again hiking through cultivated fields to get to our first gorilla group: the Kwitonda group had been chosen for us this visit. We were told that Kwitonda was very special because it had not one, but three silverbacks; for us, this was unheard of. We knew of a group called the Susa Group which had two silverbacks and a huge amount of blackbacks and females, but it had split into two fairly recently. But three? In one group? As we hiked towards the mountain we all got more and more excited.
Our guide kept in touch with the gorilla trackers by walkie-talkie, and he stopped quite abruptly and said something questioning in Kinyarwandese. We all waited to see if there was a problem, concerned. He looked at us, smiled, and said “They are out of the park.” This was apparently very unusual, and as we hustled to the waiting trackers he explained that every once in awhile, the gorillas leave the park and come down into eucalyptus plantations to eat the pith of the trees. This is problematic to say the least, for the farmers growing these trees have large swathes of their property destroyed by the gorillas, and then have to go to the government to be reimbursed for the damage. However, the gorillas have no sense of legal boundaries, and if they feel like noshing on eucalyptus, they just wander out of the park and do so.
We came around a corner and there they were. Spread out before us were some twenty or so gorillas, dotting the hillside, calmly foraging. Barbara had tears streaming down her face as she and Paul approached, and we all knelt down to watch the closest animal strip bark from one of the small trees. We were encouraged by our guide to move slowly around through the grove of trees to get better views and to really see all the group members.
I found myself riveted by one of the silverbacks, who lay on his side to rip bark from a tree and then, in a fascinating feeding technique, scraped his teeth along the pith to get the soft interior of the tree into his mouth. I turned my head to see another silverback pass by me not twenty feet away, and looked to Barb and Paul in amazement as gorillas walked amongst us, unconcerned.
***Paul and Barb embrace after seeing gorillas
A mother with a youngster on her back sauntered by, causing me to hastily move out of the way to make sure that I stayed as far away as we all agreed to. Another silverback stood to his full height and, with muscles rippling, yanked a medium sized tree down, snapping it like a twig. Another male did the same thing nearby, causing a rather large chunk of eucalyptus bark to fly through the air past our heads. We all relaxed and tried to focus on what was before us, as this glorious troop leisurely fed, foraged and walked around. The air was thick with gorilla scent and the piney-peachy smell of the destroyed eucalyptus.
- ** Me… with a silverback as he eats eucalyptus pith
The hour passed quickly, and at the end of it, as if a clock had chimed, the gorillas got up and looked to their leader; the biggest silverback led them quietly back into the forest, leaving us alone. It was quite suddenly only a memory.
Written by Lynn Killam
* photos by Barbara Lester, **Photo by Paul Freed, ***Photo by Lynn Killam
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