The Wildlife Conservation Society is saying there are a lot more gorillas than we thought. It’s so unusual to have good news from this area. I spent a year following around gorillas; we were always in fear that the loggers would suddenly decide the trees in the area were worth something.
I feel a little wistful when I see the NYT’s sharp glamour shots of ebobo, as they’re called in BaAka. They represent a lot of work. Two years of habituating one group, and getting close was rare, though we made a lot of progress. After I left the field assistants finally fully habituated Kingo and his ladies. But I remember how we would crow if the family felt comfortable enough with us to sit in a tree 25 meters away. There were a lot of days huddling in the rain, a lot of days following trails that led nowhere, a lot of days getting charged by irritated gorillas.
