Tuesday August 27
Today was our second gorilla trek. It was quite different from the first but equally as rewarding. We visited the Sigasira family. This family has 12 members. The silverback is one of two sons of Titus, a silverback made famous by Dian Fossey.
The starting point for the trek was farther from the park office than our other trips. Then we walked up steep inclines through farm fields for about 45 minutes, stopping to catch our breath. It is amazing that farmers work these fields every day, including lugging 200+ pound bags of potatoes down from the fields, and then carrying the seed potatoes back up. Once we entered the actual park, we hiked for another hour on narrow jungle paths to reach the family. We estimate that the start of the trek was about 7500 feet elevation, and that from the start to the gorillas was an elevation change of about 1400 feet.
The gorillas were resting, eating and playing (depending on whether they were adults or infants) in an open glen with heavy underbrush. We could see 11 of the 12 family members: the silverback, three females with babies (ages 3 months, 8 months and 12 months), and 4 other juveniles. The group split up a bit in search of food and we followed where we could. Our first attempt to follow them was stymied by the silverback, who decided to sit down right in the path we needed to take. Much bushwhacking ensued.
Our guide today (Epa) had previously been a tracker, and we learned a great deal about the interactions in gorilla families. He also taught us about the tracker’s duties. Trackers stay near “their” gorilla family for three months, watching them until they settle for the night and then finding them again next morning, regardless of whether that family is due for a tourist visit. They file reports every day about the health and wellbeing of the family members. During Covid, when tourism shut down, the trackers were still out there monitoring and protecting the gorillas (and quarantined from other people). Throughout the pandemic, no gorilla caught Covid. The rule is still to mask near the gorillas and the monkeys, and the researchers have noticed a marked reduction in respiratory infections (a major cause of death in young gorillas).
Epa also taught us the “happy sound” to reassure the silverback and the protective mothers that we were friendly.
The hour passed all too quickly, and then it was time to clamber back down. There is a plan to convert the farmland through which we walked back into park habitat. On our way back to our lodge we drove through one of the “model villages” where farmers are being resettled with free housing and enough compensation to allow them to buy new farmland. In many cases the new housing and its running water and nearby modern school is a great improvement from their current homes, but of course leaving the land is hard.
Pictured: silverback, mother with 8 month old feeding, 3 month old acting up, two views of babies riding on mom through the underbrush
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