In order to study the gorilla properly, one had to break free from existing prejudices. Scientists and adventurers alike had believed the gorilla was a dangerous forest monster for a century or more. An animal that could beat its chest in furious rage, give out blood-curdling cries, and had enormous teeth and muscles. The article below follows – through the opinion of a number of primatologists – the development in thinking about this animal.
Tilt in thinking
In the 1920s, the explorer Carl Akeley already suspected that the “savage” gorilla was not at all so rough and uninhibited. Cal’s vision was the first sign of a possible upheaval. However, it wasn’t until the arrival of zoologist George Schaller that thinking about this animal began to tilt. George proved that the gorilla was basically shy and friendly.
George Schaller
George had a big problem. The issue was not so much the danger of being beaten by a “ferocious” gorilla, as the difficulty of getting close enough to and watching the gorillas. To study the animals properly, he lived with his wife for 13 months in a small hut high on the slopes of the Viroenga volcanoes in the eastern part of Congo. In this area, George wandered through the fog-drenched forest, often climbed over 4,000 meters, walked 15 or sometimes 20 kilometers a day over incredibly rugged terrain, and sometimes slept under the open sky. All this to get in touch with the elusive animals. Although George learned a lot about the gorillas and also recognized that there was much more to study, he never really became familiar with or even touched a wild gorilla.
Dian Fossey
Dian was a young primatologist who went to the same place as George Schaller and would stay there for a number of years. She got to know the gorillas better than George and one day had an unforgettable experience. A large gorilla male crept up and shyly touched her hand gently. In order to achieve this furtive contact, Dian had had to put the animal at ease every time, keeping her eyes averted. She found that while gorillas are very closely related physiologically to humans, they do not resemble humans in their everyday lifestyle. Gorillas eat coarse plants. They are slow, quiet, conservative, rather toiling animals and remind us much less of humans than the much more lively and enterprising chimpanzees.
Jane Goodall
Jane started her career as a secretary to Louis Leakey. Louis knew of a pack of chimpanzees living in a hilly woodland close to the Gomber River. This river flows into Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania. Louis was interested in all things primate, and he wanted someone to study Gombe’s chimpanzee troop. He wanted this so badly because he believed that the river (with its forest and forest-zoom environment) was very similar to the environment of the Olduvai gorge of 2 million years ago. It was decided that Jane would undertake this study and since then she has devoted many years to the Gombe chimpanzees. Jane too (like George Schaller) had to deal with the problem of animal shyness.
Jane’s study
Jane made camp close to the shore of the lake. Her mother kept her company. Jane spent her days wandering the forest, looking for chimpanzees in an area of about 20 square kilometers. She wanted to watch the animals from a distance, not get too close to them, and let them get used to her presence as an introduction to closer acquaintance. It didn’t go very smoothly. Months later she watched from a distance, still suspicious. After a long period of rejection, Jane was finally accepted. Not all chimpanzees, but many. She became very friendly with some animals. Later she would spend thousands of hours with them, sometimes with actual physical contact. Jane handed out bananas and played with baby chimpanzees. More often, however, she just sat there and watched that society of unexpected subtlety and complexity that gradually unfolded before her eyes.
Photographer Hugo van Lawick
After two years, a photographer, Hugo van Lawick, joined Jane to take pictures of the animals. Hugo, too, had to undergo the same process of scrutiny, of slow familiarization and gradual acceptance, before the animals were just themselves in his presence. It happened the same way it happened with Jane. However – as evidence of the chimpanzees’ intelligence – the animals associated him with their friend Jane and accepted him within a month. Later Jane and Hugo got married.
Conclusion
Jane Goodall’s long and dedicated sightings have led to a clear picture of chimpanzees. She is an observer who has earned her spurs. Her studies and the photos of these animals taken by her husband Hugo van Lawick show us an animal that, by its nature and social organization, stimulates all kinds of speculations about the rise of man.
When we look at the apes, our vision is often clouded, because the animals are seen in the distorted image that modern humans have of them. They are placed in an environment so overwhelmingly humanized that the great apes appear much simpler in mind, much more fragile, and far less capable than they really are.
The problem is not with the great apes, but with the world. Our world has changed and at such a rapid pace that they have been unable to keep up. Our world has been overrun by the rival of the great apes. This competitor is running around in huge numbers, making noise, destroying the landscape, brandishing guns, burning down the forest and polluting the air.
That competitor is us, the humans, who push every kind of ape into a corner of the world and keep its natural habitat smaller and smaller.