“The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.”
Dian Fossey, author of Gorillas in the Mist
This past week Jamie and I headed to western Rwanda, to spend a day lounging by Lake Kivu, by the border with the (Un)Democratic Republic of Congo, which was absolutely lovely. But that lounging was in preparation for the following day: waking up at 5am to head out for a trek through rain and fog up a mountain to hang with a family of 20+ gorillas, called the Susa Family, who happen to be the family of gorillas famously studied by Dian Fossey herself. We spent 2-3 hours hiking up from 6,000 feet up a fairly steep mountain that tops out at about 9,000 feet. The mountainside was home to lush green farmland (we were a distillery away from being sure we transported to Scotland), curious local farmers and kids, and dense bamboo forests.
It was the kind of hike where the physical exertion matches the mental serenity and by the time you nearly reach the destination you’re out of breath (the air is pretty thin at 9,000 feet in the air), exhausted, and dirty. But you still think, “Wow the journey is the destination.”
Then you see the gorillas.
And you realize, no, the destination really is the destination.
We spent an hour observing the Susa family of mountain gorillas close up; as in close enough to reach out and touch them since they’re fairly blasé about our presence. After getting up close and personal with the gorillas we returned down the mountain. At the foot of the mountain, where jeeps awaited us, there was a group of villagers selling various merchandise, including shirts that said “Muzungus in the Mist,” (Muzungu is basically Rwandan for “honkey” or white person). I thought it funny enough to earn the title of this post.
That tangent aside, it’s impossible to not itch with curiosity towards how a species so close to human lives and plays. Watching an animal that can use its opposable thumbs will always be striking. Observing them was like doing a review of what some our most basic psychological needs. Four needs that stuck out the most to me include:
Our Need for Safe Space
A Susa baby gorilla finds safe space on mama’s back
The gorillas were comfortable with us watching them eat and play up close, but we were warned that it was possible they would not be so ok with us entering the territory in which case we would have to communicate our deference to them through kneeling down and avoiding eye contact. The need to have territory for oneself, family, tribe (extended family) or nation (coalition of extended families) is taken seriously by the gorillas.
It speaks to how crucial safe space is to our own psyche. As individuals we have places that we guard jealously, whether they be houses, bedrooms, or for New Yorkers a 10X10 foot shoebox they call a modest studio with great location.
The world is full of uncertainty and danger. Keeping a safe space is an insurance policy that if the rest of the world becomes too scary, we have one place into which we, and our most loved ones, can retreat and plan our next step.
Our Need to Share
The gorillas are a cooperative species. They share their space and their food (though they also make clear to the others when not to mess with their food). Sharing is critical on multiple levels. The first is on a basic level of survival. Now to be clear, gorillas will allow one of their own to die if natural selection deems it correct. But survival is not an individual contest for the gorillas; it is a collective undertaking by the family. Therefore sharing is essential to ensuring that the maximal amount of the family can survive, produce children and care for those children until adulthood (gorillas tend to breastfeed for about three years…I think).
But there is another level and explanation to the centrality of sharing to our own psyche: it is how we create and maintain connections to others. Whether sharing food, space, or time, doing so reaffirms our desire to connect and reinforces that connection to do so. The world is a harsh place, so I need someone I can trust. I can only trust someone who understands me and I understand them. I can only understand someone, and they understand me, if we have a genuine connection. How do I create and maintain that connection? Through sharing my experience with them, and they with me. And the more we share, the stronger that connection and trust is.
Our Need for Silly
Two young members of the Susa family get tangled up and turned upside down while wrestling (all in the name of fun, of course!)
The most entertaining thing to watch on the mountain was how the young gorillas played with each other, wrestling, teasing each other and rolling around the hill. Does this help develop the young gorillas ability to handle physical confrontation? Yeah. Does it also play a role in helping the gorillas determine dominance at various stages of development? Probably. But it also is because while the world is harrowing, sometimes the best inoculation is remembering that we can choose times to forget about the world and just do something fun and revel in our senses, physical prowess and roll around a muddy slope.
Our Need to Resolve Conflict
But not all physical interactions are sharing and playing. We watched as gorillas resolved scuffles among the family, either because one was eating another’s food, getting in another’s way or whatever else it is that gorillas bicker over. It was exhilarating and a little scary to be standing eight feet from two gorillas who escalated from grabbing at the same food to literally beating their chests at each other in about ten seconds. But what was much more interesting was how instantly the quarrel was resolved, one gorilla would back down, and then within a minute they might be playing together or picking the ticks off each other. Lesson: once a grievance has been resolved, you only waste time in stewing over it. Let me know when you figure out how to do that, I would love to learn that trick.
One Final Note
Mountain gorillas are as endangered as they are majestic. They only live in the rain forest that is split between Uganda, Rwanda and (Un)Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwandan Government goes to admirable lengths to protect the mountain gorillas, as does the Ugandan Government. The DRC though…well let’s just say the gorillas have figured out they are better off leaving the DRC. The government is beyond corrupt and for the right price you can set a trap that will ensnare a gorilla. There is something poetic in the mountain gorillas reacting to the effects of a dysfunctional human cooperative enterprise.
Required gorilla selfie! #Africamp
Check out tons more photos of these amazing gorillas here!
Photo credit (mostly) to Jamie Maxner.
#africamp 