Fight for the African Gorilla Population
Doherty begins his 1979 article with the history of Dian Fossey. She started her work in 1963 when she met Dr. Louis Leakey who encouraged her interest in the great primates. As a result of a myth, the mountain gorillas were believed to be violent creatures. Because of the myth, Africans & scientists were skeptical of an American woman in a foreign country wanting to coexist with gorillas. Dian Fossey was able to convince National Geographic to support a research program. The program saw early success in the early 1970’s when National Geographic Television did a documentary on Fossey’s work. The myth was broken when millions of people around the world were able to watch a “poignant scene of a young male gorilla, Digit, gently examine Fossey’s pen and notebook, then hand them back to her and roll over to take a nap by her side”
(Doherty 17). The myth of the gorilla was further broken when Fossey’s book Gorillas in the Mist was published in 1980. Her research showed that the mountain gorilla was a large, peaceful vegetarian who with his family group munched their way through the vegetative land in which they lived. During this time period the gorilla population dwindled to 214. Doherty states that the publicity from the book made Dian Fossey the most famous animal researcher of our time. He describes her as a shy soft-spoken woman except when it comes to the gorillas when she becomes quite outspoken and uncompromising.
Fossey’s goal is to preserve the mountain gorilla and she will not be swayed regardless of the cost. Unfortunately the cost came in the form of unsolicited publicity with the report of Dian Fossey’s murder at Karisoke in 1985. Schmidt, in the 1999 International Wildlife article, acknowledges that the plight of the mountain gorilla is again brought to public awareness with the creation in 1986 of the movie Gorillas in the Mist based on Fossey’s book. Both authors agree that the fund created by Dian Fossey, first as the Digit Fund, then the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund has contributed unceasing help in the conservation of this precious animal.
In 1979, Doherty goes to great lengths describing the three threats to the gorillas as poaching, habitat destruction and uncontrolled tourism. Even though Dian Fossey had to contend with political unrest in dealing with Belgian government officials to enlist its aid in protecting the gorillas, this unrest was not a direct threat at that time.
In 1999, Schmidt tells how this political unrest became a direct threat when civil war broke out in the region in 1996 and 1997 long after the murder of Fossey.
Norbert Mushenzi as current director of the Parc de Virunga took up the cause where Dian Fossey left off. The progress made by Fossey against the threats of human encroachment, poaching, and habitat destruction was lost. Forty-four of Mushenzi’s rangers and their family members were murdered by rebel soldiers. The war for the gorillas’ survival now became more important then ever. With the death of his employees, slaughter of animals to feed the fleeing refugees, and the destruction of the park infrastructure, Mushenzi continued to do whatever was necessary to save the gorillas. As the turmoil of the country slows down, Mushenzi and his team work with little resources from the Belgian government. Raw determination and sheer bravery in keeping the conservation effort going – with donations from the Gorilla Fund – – keep the team ever vigilant in the protection of the gorillas. The team’s hard work is being recognized in the increased numbers in the population of the gorillas.
Jim Doherty and Jeremy Schmidt evoke great emotion with the stories of Digit and Mvuyekure. Even though there are added threats to the gorilla population today, the message remains the same. Mushenzi and his team, like Dian Fossey, are willing at all costs to continue the war for the gorillas survival. It is not the same war described in 1979 by Richard Reinauer, associate producer of the Wild Kingdom television series. He said, ” Dian Fossey is striving almost single-handedly to save the last vestige of an animal species that has been on this planet for thousands of years. In spite of our increased knowledge and our advanced civilization she is fighting a losing battle and there is little we can do to help” (Doherty 19). Is he wrong in his summation?
Perhaps the story of one young gorilla named Mvuyekure sums up everything. He was taken by poachers who killed his parents. Authorities caught the poachers and returned the young gorilla to the rangers. Reintroducing a gorilla to the wild had never been done before. The rangers placed Mvuyekure back with his extended family and now at six years old he is thriving. His name means “one who was lost and now is found” (Schmidt 21). In Doherty’s article, Reinauer may have been correct in assuming the survival of these animals is a battle. But, is it a losing one? Doherty and Schmidt both agree that George Shaller, Dian Fossey, and Norbert Mushenzi have engaged in this war. When one of these persons is gone, another is found willing to rise up and take on the cause. I personally do not agree that the continuing war for the gorillas survival is a losing one. The two articles in International Wildlife describe a continual change of threats to be overcome to save the mountain gorilla.
