GorillaSound

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 31 2009 | By: gorillasound

It started all as a normal day in the forest but turned out to be a not a normal day at all. I successfully placed myself under Kingo as he is the one for me. I had to say, I would do never anything like this on purpose as I would be scared to death. But my clumsiness can do everything for me. I was in the bushes with Bakanga (my hero for the day). If there is one place I don’t like in the forest, that’s the bushes. You can find variety of hidden lianas (or making it right, they can find you). and lianas with variety of spines. I always feel like there is no room for anyone in the bushes of Mondika. I feel too big to fit in even though Kingo, his family, our trackers and elephants can totally be comfortable in. Anyhow, as you pictured it, I was in the bushes, trying to walk and trying to use this little computer for collecting data. The problem with the computer is: it is not easy to walk and to write at the same time while you feel like there is nowhere to walk. Kingo was sitting 3m away from us. It was a dead end bush so Bakanga was trying to open a trail for us to move from Kingo’s way. He quickly cut the vegetation in front of us and the fallen dead vegetation grows as a little mountain in front of us. Bakanga, as quick as he, climbed up and placed himself away from Kingo. He was expecting that I would do the same easy move. I might if I wasn’t trying to write at the same time. So as you all guess, I fell on my butt in the worst possible time, when Kingo was trying to leave the place. When he saw that some clumsy creature was lying on the ground and blocking his way out, he didn’t like that at all. In a sec, he was almost on me. My legs were under him and from where I look, for the first time with all my heart, I realized that: ohhh god how huge he is! He was looking down at me then he opened his huge mouth (everything was looking so huge right that sec except me). I felt on the size of an ant. I thought OK, goodbye world. He was either going to bit me or to kiss me with that mouth but I was pretty sure I was going to die from a hearth attach even if it is a kiss or a nip. Then without me realizing, a scream went out from my mouth. A scream that made Bakanga to look at me and a scream that made Roberta and Kete, who were far away to see what’s going on, to laugh. As everything developed in less than five sec, Bakanga wasn’t aware before that I was lying under Kingo. He was cutting the vegetations for us to move on. The moment when he heard and seen me, without thinking twice, he just jumped between me and Kingo. Now, I was under Bakanga and Kingo and Kingo was nose to nose with Bakanga. Bakanga started to shake the trees near by and by using this distraction, I took my legs under Kingo and jumped on my feet, still behind Bakanga. Kingo looked at us for a little more, still with an open mouth, walked a little, sit and continue to eat as nothing happened. Me and Bakanga were pumped with adrenalin and started to laugh silently about what had happened. I hugged and kissed him as he was my hero for the day. He risked his own self to protect me from myself. I was lucky that I was together with two prince, one is so brave that he didn’t need to think twice to save me, the other one is so peaceful and so calm as his nature that he didn’t need to kiss or to nip me who was lying under him and cant resist the both.

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 28 2009 | By: gorillasound

Today, I will take you to the movie set of TARZAN in Congo. The day before, we left Kingo and his harem with our trackers on the way to the swamp. And the next morning I was all so happy about going in to the swamp and finally capturing amazing shots of the King, the Queens and the Princes of the forest. That was what I was dreaming and of course that wasn’t what happened in the end. So, early early in the morning, I was on the way for the swamp. After walking almost two hours, we arrived there. The last week, we had a big storm with a lot of rain in, thus the swamps were full with water. In the beginning it was all fun. We were jumping from one island to the other and getting as little mud as we can. Trackers were finding the trails of Kingo while I was jumping around like a kid from the happiness of being in the swamp, without the consciousness of the difficulties waiting for us. According to the trails they left behind, Kingo was going right deep in to the swamp. After the first five minutes, there was no island left to jump so finally we step in to the swamp. In the swamp, the water is all dark brown and feels more like mud than the water so for my case, I was certainly sure that there was noway to see whats lying under. And once more, as you assume, that’s not what trackers feel. They might even have XR eyes to see everything in any condition. So with the first step I took to the swamp, I drown myself to the breast level. Kenga, one of our trackers, give his hand to me immediately and pull me out. He was walking right in front of me. He told me, I should put my feet where he just put. But, for some reason, the things he found to step on was getting disappeared when I tried to step on them and I was continuously drowning myself. At one point, I thought maybe if I swam in that darkest water, it would be easier for everyone. Two of the trackers were already far away from me to find Kingo as quick as possible and Kenga was taking care of me. While I was trying to ask, which object he was stepping on and how he could possibly see them, I submerged again before finishing my sentence. Then he stopped and turned around to see my flutter body in the mud. He pulled me out one more time, lowered his voice, like getting ready to give me the biggest sacred ever. For a sec, I thought he was getting ready to explain me the meaning of life. Then he asked me, ‘Do you know the system’. I had to get closer to understand him. I answered him with the same mystic tone ‘No, What is the system?’ And here it is: ‘You need to walk SLOWWLLLYY. You do not need to see. Slowness is the secret of staying dry in the swamp.’ He was not making fun of me. He was giving me the secret. And on the contrary of what we assume about the secrets, they do not need to be big. It could be as simple as this. So, I continue my way by walking SLOWLY. Then I’ve seen the trackers, in front of us. They were holding one big liana and swinging from one side to the other as there was no other way to cross. And I told myself, OK then there is where I quit and in the background I could hear the famous screaming of TARZAN. They all swing to the other side and surprisingly, even though I splash some water around, I managed to cross to the other side, with a scream..AaAaAaaaa…..
Long to short, we tried to find Kingo in the swamp for three hours but we were certain by now that he was already find his way to the forest again so we left the swamp without Kingo or without the pictures I was planning to take. On the way out from the swamp, I imagined if someone was watching us, this is what probably they would see:
Trackers were the swans on dance, I was the cat in the water. And Kingo has absolutely nothing to do with us…

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 25 2009 | By: gorillasound

We can say that the fruit season is already started . Until now Kingo and the others included few fruit species in their diet (some bambu, liamba, ngluma, bokoko) but recently the number of species on which they feed on is clearly increasing.
Yesterday afternoon we left the group close to a specific tree on which a big liana found its way to get sun light. The liana is called in BaHaka Ngumu (fig sp.). It’s a wonderful big liana that embraces the trunk of other big trees and opens its branches high in the canopy. The fruits of this species are quite small, of the size and shape of a lime, fig-like inside. Everyone in the forest get crazy for Ngumu fruits!

We found the gorillas eating on the tree/liana, Kingo included. After more than an hour Kingo decided to climb down to have a rest. Most of the females stayed up in the tree, but Ugly and Mekome went down and followed Kingo in the thicket. I was following Ugly while Aylin was following Kingo. We were both sitting with our sleeping focal animal, when we heard the sound made by an elephant walking towards the Ngumu (10 meters from us). Quickly we get out of the ticket and went to see the elephant, who already has reached the tree/liana, located on the trail. And yes! There was a very big male, eating quietly all fruits the gorillas made fell down just half an hour before. No gorilla females were on the tree anymore.
It was now the elephant turn!
We were at 10-15 meters from him, on the same trail. Surely he saw us, he smelled us, but he decided that the fruits where more interesting than anything else and we were not so scary! He was very relaxed; I had the suspicion that the elephant was Mondika, the big male who used to visit the camp.
Since the elephant was behaving quietly, we decided to continue our work with the gorillas even if we still were very close to the elephant. Then the gorillas and the elephant decided to take different directions and we heard the elephant getting further away.

In the afternoon, we had a long tour in the thickets nearby, where the gorillas got their daily amount of herbaceous vegetation and we got twelve thousands flies on us! Not surprisingly the group came back to the Ngumu tree/liana before looking for a place where spending the night.

The liana/tree was visited by Kingo and the others also the following morning. We came back to the Ngumu again after lunch time. That day Aylin and I worked all day in the forest, luckily for us. While we were arriving to the tree we heard one of the Kingo’s female hand clapping, a behavior that normally indicate a potential danger. On the tree/Liana, close to Fini and Emilie, there was another male! Before seeing the male, we met Kingo on the ground, who was in a strange mood. He came toward us and charges us quickly (gently smashing a small tree on my back!) to get in a spot where he could look up in the tree. At the same time, our teams were discovered by the other male on the tree, who started to scream and run everywhere, scared by our presence. Fini, in the tree, run towards the screaming male, but I still don’t know if it was to chase him or follow him! At that time, Kingo run at the base of the tree where the other male was trying to get down. The male chest beat few times, continuing screaming and barking, while Kingo was running and chest beating on the ground. All his muscles were tense and ready to be used, his strength was impressive. The poor male couldn’t get down from the tree because Kingo was waiting for him at the base of the tree. After more than half an hour the male found his way down and disappeared in the forest. Kingo came back to eat his gained fruits with his protected family!

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 19 2009 | By: gorillasound

Ok, here we are, in the playground of Kusu and Ekendi and as usual every other member of the group getting their beauty sleep. The big boss is sleeping 5m and Mekome, sensitive mother of Ekendi, is sleeping 3 meters away from the current play ground of rustlers. Maybe it is better if I tell you the story all the way beginning. Kingo gave his back to a tree before lying down and called his harem to come closer. Mekome, his biggest fan, immediately answer his call and sat in a place where she can watch her man. When Ekendi has seen approaching mother of his, he went directly to her by a whimpering on his little voice. Ekendi was ready to fall asleep in his mom’s arm just if Kusu didn’t show himself in his own way, spinning around at the same time beating his small chest. Kusu, as it is clear, was nowhere close to sleep and had no desire to let Ekendi sleep too. He gently pulled Ekendi from his mom and they started to play. You are going to say, so what is abnormal about it. And you are totally right but the real story starts right after this point. They were rustling, murmuring, beating, climbing, and jumping nonstop at least for fifteen minutes. Kusu was totally lost himself in his own excitement during the game. Ekendi wanted to stop the game and lie down with his mom but hey Kusu wasn’t sharing the same idea. So he caught Ekendi and due to his insisting big brother, Ekendi continued to play for five more minutes but that was enough for him. He was over with the game. He tried to go back to Mekome but Kusu was overexcited. He just couldn’t stop playing right that moment so he hold Ekendi tightly who was trying to run away. And with that move, Ekendi was on his nerves. If he was stronger than Kusu, he might pull him back and go on his own way but that wasn’t the case, at least for now. So he did what he can only do. Scream for help. But for sounding cool (that’s my opinion), he tried to imitate an aggressive call of adults. He was grunting to his brother. The aim was obviously calling his mom to save him instead of making Kusu scared. When Mekome heard his little boy calling for help, she didn’t waste one sec, jumped on her feet and became the super mother. She gently held Kusu from his arm for telling him: Ekendi doesn’t want to play with you anymore. Let him sleep ( I think). But Kusu was on no state of mind to understand that and knowing that his dad is lying right over there just in case of another emergent help, the spoiled Kusu couldn’t be hold by Mekome. So he caught Ekendi’s hand when he was hold by the arm by Mekome. Mekome was in the middle, pushing away Kusu with one hand and with the other hand pulling Ekendi from Kusu’s grip while Kusu was trying so hard to pull Ekendi to the opposite direction. Ekendi was angrily calling Kusu more like: stop it. I do not want to play. After the last call of her little son, Mekome lost her tolerant and without letting go of Kusu, she aggressively cough grunt at Kusu, I assume saying: Ok that’s enough. You are over your limit. Kingo was silent until the aggressive grunt of Mekome. When he heard she was angry to his son, he became on charge and told them to stop it all. With Kingo’s call, Kusu run away from the spot before anyone else getting annoyed, Kingo lied down back, Mekome went back to where she was sleeping, Ekendi right behind her, whimpering like a little baby boy who had a fight with his best friend and calling for her mom’s love . He sat on Mekome’s lap, still whimpering and Mekome, the best mother ever, holding her boy close to her body while one hand was softly brushing Ekendi’s neck during the whimpering. She was listening the story that her son was presenting in his whimpers. When Kusu was left alone for acting spoiled in the game, Ekendi was getting spoiled from the unlimited love of his mom.

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 17 2009 | By: gorillasound

So as you wish, here is our story with trackers. Even though I know them just for two months, I am experiencing being almost at home in a foreign land due to their unlimited love towards us. Before coming to Mondika, I have worked in the other forests with different trackers. But I never feel this much attachment between me and them. The trackers here are our friends that you can share the happiness and the sadness equally. They are originally Pigmies, The People of The Forest. According to the author of “Forest People”, they are the first people on earth. When the first explorer arrive to the continent of Africa and seen the Pigmies, they thought, Pigmies are the spirits of the forests and they could be invisible anytime they want to. Moreover, the explorer strongly supported that they can kill an elephant using just one of their hands with no difficulties. Later on, they made the big mistake of thinking that they were chimps and expose a skeleton of a chimp in museum for ages until someone has realized that big mistake they were doing. In the Pigmy culture (which is unfortunately sharing the same sad destiny with other old cultures and getting lost), they think forest is their mother and their father. According to the culture, they are the children of the forest so like every parent, forest takes care of them. It gives them the food and the protection they need. Forest talks with them. They know where the good and bad hidden in it. When our ears hear either complete silent or complete noise, Pigmies listen the language of forest. When our eyes see only dead leaves on the ground or semi-darkness, Pigmies can see which other beings were there before us or are still present with us. They believe, they have to sing for the forest for the happiness and sadness they go under through. When bad things start to happen, they think the forest forgets about its children and for reminding their self back, they sing with the top of their voice. Or when the good things happen, they sing for showing that they know the goodness come from the forest and they share their happiness with it. But like I said before, the culture is on the limit of loosing itself. The pigmies are coming out from the forest for using the privilege the villagers have. And village is easy but not forest (actually this is a very dependable sentence to the point of view you possess). Long to short, our trackers were once the children of the forest but now they live in a little village, called Mussapola. As I understand, they settled down in Mussapola less than a hundred years ago but never turned their back to their culture completely. They still sing and dance for the forest and still use the old way of hunting. More important, their eyes and ears are still turned to the forest and their heart is beating for it. If they were lost the understanding of the forest, there would be no way for us to follow Kingo day after day. Even if they paid me all the world to find Kingo, I just couldn’t, doesn’t matter how hard I try. For them, it is a child game, not only to find Kingo but also know where a snake is hiding, where is the nearest elephant, which plants you should avoid, which animals are nearby. As it is, they have the eyes of the forest, which we lost soooo long ago. If they know, there is danger around, mostly an elephant, instead of running and saving their self; they reach your hand to save you first. And I have to admit; running (more like caring actually) in the forest with me is ten times more difficult as I don’t really know how to walk in the forest like them. Every liana is a trap for me to fall and the forest is full of them. Imagine an approaching elephant all in rage, what will you do? Run for your life or hold someone’s hand that has no understanding on how to walk. Gladly, they always choose the second one. They are always protective on us. They take care of us like a really really patient father. They check where we sit, with the idea of something dangerous might hidden behind the leaves. They always walk in front of us to face with the unknown. If we are tired, they ask to carry what little we have on our backs. When we arrive to the camp, they continue being protective. If one of us gets sick, they go back to the forest to find the cure. Right now I am trying to learn a common language that we can speak and they are so patient with me. Even though I am learning it really slowly and ask the same question hundred times more, they just explain it over again with no frustration on their voice. It feels like they never get frustrated. And when they talk in their own language, it is not like they have sentences, more like they have lyrics. They have a nice melody on their voice so even a boring topic can turn to be a nice listenable song. Every day, we welcome the day with their songs and their laughs between the songs. But unfortunately, like every people who belong to the oldest and most respectful culture (for me), like aboriginals and pigmies, their tolerance level for alcohol is too low. They can get totally drunk with the smell of it and become someone that we do not know before. But gladly, there are not many days for them to get drunk. Nevertheless, even when they are drunk, you can see the wisdom they carry in their eyes. Many of them can’t even read but know more than most of us about the importance of forest and everything in it. When you tell them, people can kill an animal just for fun, you can see the confusion they have and immediately ask you: “But why do they kill it if they don’t want to eat?” So how do you explain that to the children of the forest? I have to admit, I am really happy to be here to share my days with Kingo but I am more happy to have the chance of meeting with the trackers whose hearts are stile beating with the forest which we once loved and forgot.

3 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 13 2009 | By: gorillasound

Two days ago, as always, we went in the morning to follow two members of Kingo’s group. This time Aylin was going to follow Kingo, while I was going to follow Mama and then Mekome.
We didn’t found the group right away, because in the morning, before we went in the forest they traveled a lot. The traces were straight toward east….it was clear that it was going to be a wet day in the swamp.
As I explained before gorillas visit the swamps quite regularly. In some months they don’t go often (like the past March) while in others they can spend there more than 30% of their time. Anyway, we found the group, who was walking fast, each individual for his own, scratching the soil of the Bemba forest, which is found before the real swamp area.
For more than an hour I couldn’t hear the clucking of the team following Kingo, since Mama was in front of everyone, try to push all the rest to go quickly in the swamp area, she also called Kingo loudly twice, but he was too occupied scratching the soil more than 100m away.
After two hours and half I changed focal animal and started to follow Mekome. All females were now in front of Kingo, right to the edge of the swamp…and as soon as Kingo get closer, the females started to get in.
The swamp:
In the swamp there are several different habitats: the forest inundated, the watery clearings, other open floating herbaceous vegetation area and thickets of lianas full of poisoned spines.
Walking there is not easy and for Aylin it was the first time (I’m sure she will write about her first impressions!). The first time (2003) I entered the swamp, I remember that I thought it was like to do Tai Chi. You always have to check your steps before put on the weight, if not you risk to get in the water until your neck!! The trackers walk on invisible trunk under the water, so if you miss the place where they walked….can be a problem. In addition, you have to check always where you are putting your hands, which help you to maintain the balance while walking on those trunks or tree roots or swinging lianas! Many insects live in the swamp areas, all kinds of ants, sleepy flies and several dangerous wasps (without talking about the aquatic and non snakes, small crocodiles and if you are really unlucky….elephants)! Anyway, since gorilla can sit in the water and stay hours just washing and eating leaves and roots of Hydrocaris sp. (we called it Congwasika), to go in the swamp it’s a good occasion to see really well all group members. I always enjoy to go there a lot, even if can be very stressful sometimes, especially when you have to follow the females!
I was with Kete (the best young tracker!) walking fast to maintain the contact with my focal, Mekome, who went directly in front of the group to reach the first clearing. Following her we passed through very difficult places, but at the end we get in a wonderful place where we could observe her and the rest of females from less than 6 meters. We were just sitting on some lianas on the edge of the clearing when we heard Kingo coming from behind. Unfortunately he decided to take the same route we did. In the swamp there are not many places where you can step, walk or escape a gorilla charge! After few seconds Kingo was at 1 meter from us behind a small tree! He could come on the left or the right of this tree, in both cases we were too close and surely Kingo wouldn’t like it. As soon as he got his decision I jumped to the other side to leave him the way, but he charged (always gently!) us anyway, after that he started to eat 2 meters from us as always. In the same clearing there where Mekome, Mama, Kusu, Ekendi eating and Emilie try to get a place, but anytime she tried to eat something Mama and Mekome just cough grunted to her. After few minutes she realized that if she wanted to eat something she had to go somewhere else. She went where Fini and Ugly went, and where mama went too after Kingo arrived. Even for Kusu wasn’t simple, he tried to eat close to Kingo (big mistake!), who charged him right away. Kusu then went a little further and start to eat congwasika, imitating the gesture of the adults (washing it before) even where there was not water!
After the afternoon team reached us in the swamp we came back to the camp to have a desired hot shower!

No responses yet

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 08 2009 | By: gorillasound

Since I came at Mondika I concentrated my time on Kingo, the data collection and logistic issues. Two days ago, finally, I went to see the new group! We just walked 1 km west of our camp and we heard the noise of gorillas scratching the ground. We were still in the Bemba Forest (Gilbertodendron sp.) which normally is found close to rivers (Mondika in this case) and in patches in the mixed forest. Gorillas use Bemba forest in all time of the year; they eat the big seeds when available (July,August) or before going to the swamp of the Ndoki river, they regularly stop in the bemba to scratch the soil and get little rhizomes-like they found on small roots in the ground.
We started to clack and get closer to the group, but the individuals continued to forage undisturbed. After a little I heard the grunting of the male and I tried to see him behind the underground vegetation of the Bemba. There is he! The third gorilla silverback under habituation at Mondika!! He was very calm, still at 15 meters from us and always covered by vegetation, but quietly scratching the soil. Several different noises in the forest were indicating the presence of several other group members. One female juvenile came to eat very close to us (7meters) and was completely in sight. Only when we started to move she looked at us to see where we were directed. Then Buka started to move and I could see him very well. Big male but not as big as Kingo, and younger than him, or at least it seemed to me. After few minutes, a female from our left started to cough grunt and scream at us and Buka, the defender of the group charged us. At this point I could see more than 4 individuals at very close distance (<4): Buka, who run toward us with a big celery-like in his mouth, a young juvenile, the female who screamed at first, and another female. The female has been nicknamed Mama Bordel (problem maker) because is always from her screams that the charges start. She came very close, less than 1 meter. Is the same female who, in several occasions, touched or tried to catch the legs of trackers and researchers. After few minutes everyone came back eating as if anything happened before. Of course the individuals are not yet habituated, but I was very surprised from the Buka behavior. He didn’t maintain always the position at the back of the group to protect other individuals, he just accepted our team walking close to others or in the middle of the wide spread group. After few minutes Buka climbed a wonderful tree following diagonally on the river and I could see very well his face. His head is very round, gentile eyes, I liked him right away! After he climbed down, and walked for a while we were charged again by Buka and his female (all these charges just reminded me the old times with Kingo and the other Mondika silverback, Muya!)

With the group we then crossed Mondika River and went toward east, always along the little river. Surprisingly the group continued foraging also when we arrived close to the camp and could hear people speaking and laughing! It seemed that they were already habituated to pass close to our camp!!! When we arrived close to the bridge, I left the team and came back to the camp and surprisingly I saw one Buka’s female, Mama Gentil, eating leaves at 2 meters height and just less than 7 horizontal meters from the bridge!! She stayed there for more than 10 minutes, than she left to follow Buka and the others!!!

It was very nice to see how well is going the habituation of the second group; the trackers and Patrice (with the help of all assistants) are doing a really good job. The group is big with several infants (6?) and juveniles (2?), more than five females (6?), they pass often close to the camp which it will facilitate the logistic of future tourist visits. The habituation process is an intense moment, you are charged by big gorillas, which you are just starting to know, everyday, sometimes several times per day. You get used to it, and then you focus your attention to the differences and progress of the habituation process, and enjoy the changes while slowly you get to know all individuals. Great experience!!

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 04 2009 | By: gorillasound

Insects are common in the diet of primates. Small species rely mostly on them while others eat insects sporadically and opportunistically. Even gorillas eat insects; in mountain gorillas insectivory is uncommon and considered not really important, whereas in western gorillas insectivory is a phenomenon quite common and regular. The insects most eaten are termites, followed by some species of ants. Gorillas don’t use tools to extract the larvae from the sandy nest as chimpanzees do. They normally break the nest in parts with their hands, except when the nest is too hard they then try directly with their mouth: they pound the piece of nest with one hand in the other to make the larvae fall down, as we do with chips packs, or they go directly on the part of exposed nest with their mouth and collect all the larvae with their tongs and lips. As for all other food processing infants and juveniles are less efficient than adults and they seem to like but also play with their food (while they are actually learning and practicing).

Also Kingo and the members of his family often feed on termites. As you know Mama’s son has been named Kusu (termites in Bahaka) because she is a lover of termites, wherever she goes she always looks for and feed on termite larvae. Just yesterday Kingo cough grunt to us because we went too close is next food item, a termite nest on a tree behind us! Here is a video that shows termite lunch break for some members of Kingo’s group.

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 03 2009 | By: gorillasound

Before telling you a story about the strong bond between a father and a son, I have to point out that I am more than glad that Roberta is responsible from the scientific part of her blog. Otherwise I would drawn you in to the dreamy world arisen from my human feelings that I seen in gorillas which has not much scientific base behind. So one might see different than the other when the topic is arising feelings. I really hope that you, our readers will not take my words as the reality itself as I don’t have the proves but the feelings:)

So, today, for the hope of sharing my memories about the other members of Kingo’s group, i turn my eyes to Kingo instead of only looking for Kusu and Ekendi. And here we are, I am right behind Kingo and the little shadows of him walking right in front him. So i have the chance of observing the little ones and the big one at the same time. After ten minutes of nice walking, Ekendi decided to follow his affectionate mom instead of his powerful father and he disappeared from my sight. Then, Kusu started to talk and then I realized you don’t need build up words to communicate. Kingo, his gentle father, was walking right behind Kusu and replying his son. When Kingo sits, Kusu sits right next to him, shoulder to shoulder, both holding nice tasty leaves and humming on their own way. When you see them like that, it rings a bell in your mind too. It is like sitting in a restaurant and hearing the sound of humming coming from the people who are having a delicious meal. The only difference is, this humming takes its place right in the heart of the wilderness and Kingo wears his fur, when we wear our fashioned cloths. When Kingo started to walk after eating his delicious leaves, Kusu on his feet following his idol, still saying something which my ears do not capable to understand. This time, it was like watching a father and a son in the park, hand to hand. The son was probably telling all these exiting life he discovered during his play and who knows what Kusu was saying to his dad about his own world. One ear on Kusu, Kingo started to wonder about where his harem was, as there were no females on our sight and obviously on his as well. Then without bothering much, Kingo and Kusu started to call for the females to come closer. First, Kingo was calling his females on his own way then after his father, Kusu was trying to imitate what just Kingo said. They continued like this way of nonstop talking for at least half an hour. It seemed like Kusu was enjoying himself so much that he again lost control, jumped on to a tree nearby, shaking the branches and shaking his own self and an imitation on his voice, calling nonstop like a big man. First Kingo was lying a little further away but when he got the energy that his son was spreading around, he slowly walked and sat under the tree. Looking at his son and chatting. Now it was confusing for me to understand who was answering who. There was continuous talking going on between the big man and the little one. I assumed that as a result of all these playful calls towards the females, the females started to approach. When females came close by, Kingo lied down for a rest but hey, Kusu was nowhere close to be tired so he jumped off from the tree and approached Kingo on his own way, spinning around, eyes on the sky, mouth half open from the joy and murmuring something, that my ears translated from a ‘Kusu Language’ to ‘Aylin Language’: Oh no, its not a sleeping time yet, lets play, the fun has just started… When they were skin to skin, Kusu beat Kingo’s chest playfully. Kingo lying flat, Kusu on his feet, looked too little. Kingo tried to reach Kusu gently by his hand and murmur softly before closing his eyes. Whatever Kingo said to his son, Kusu was lying next to his idol and ready to close his eyes for his own beauty sleep as well.

One response so far