GorillaSound

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: gorillasound

The day after our visit to Dzanga Bai, we met Mongambe and Zomela in Bayanga, early in the morning, to buy the last few things before going into the forest via Moussapola, the village where Baihaka families dwell. Shortly after our arrival to Moussapola, all trackers wives appear at the door of Dona’s house, where we waited for the men for more than 2 hours. The big problem? The almighty palm wine was not there yet! And nobody wanted to go to the forest without it… Finally, the wine arrived (40 liters!) and we started to walk. I was in front with Dona, who was leading us while carrying his little baby on his shoulders. After a few minutes, the women behind started to sing, making their incredible yodel, completely harmonized with the incessant forest sounds! We waited to see how many we were; I counted more than 40 people!! We couldn’t went too far from the village because we had to come back the next morning to Bayanga to catch the pirogue heading to Bomassa. After an hour walking we arrived close to a river and decided to stop there for the night. In this way, we had enough time to set up the camp and go deeper into the forest with the “banda” (hunting net) to catch something for dinner. More than eight people took their banda and started to put them in the forest. Women of all ages create a semicircle with the nets while men and other women inside the semicircle shaking branches and imitating animal noises try to push the potential preys towards the net. . If they don’t catch any game after five-ten minutes they rebuild the semicircle of net 200 meters further and start again. Since they tried After 3 unsuccessful attempts, Mapoko’s wife, a wonderful woman of exceptional strength and voice, decides to intervene… She starts to perform in order to have success with the banda, singing and chewing leaves, and then she spits them on the ground and continues singing. Everybody chews leaves and spits on the ground, by my turn the leaves had created a prominent little hill! We keep walking a little further and suddenly we hear the excitement and the screams of joy of the Baihaka in front of us. They catch a little blue duiker! They tried to hunt something else, but the sun was leaving so we decided to come back to the camp. Before that, the meat was divided among the women in similar parts. After a refreshing bath in the river we were ready for dinner. While hunting the women were also collecting coco leaves, forest tubers, payo and other seeds and leaves. I tried a small piece of meat and then I ate coco with gozo. The meat was divided among everyone but wasn’t enough as a dinner, so all the meat and sardines we went with, were cooked the same night.
While the darkness was pervading the forest, we seat close the fires with the women and children. All started to clap their hands while singing; the men were sitting further away, while the young guys were playing the drums! With pitch black night, occasionally lightened by the small fires of the camp, the women started to sing their songs. The voices were incredible; I’m getting more and more in love with their music. As soon as I will have full internet access I will upload some of the recording I took at night!
Suddenly, a young girl sitting at my right points to several dim yet almost fluorescent greenish lights ,arriving from the forest in front of us. Yes! The “toro” were arriving! The four forest spirits danced for more than 2 hours; their dances were incredibly hypnotic; the lights on them resembled strange animal creatures moving in the forest, sometimes flying, sometimes jumping impossible distances, sometimes disappearing in the dark. No more words, it has to be seen in person!
We then went to sleep, but the songs never stopped (well… actually they did after wine was over!) The morning afterwards, around seven, we walked the way back to the village. I promised that I will come back to spend a great time in the forest again!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: gorillasound

To reach the bai, you need to have a tracker who knows the area and who had worked for Andrea. Among our trackers, Wasi worked for several years at the Dzanga Bai and still sometimes accompanies tourists there. I asked him to come with us, and he accepted happily. We needed to rent a car to arrive there , thus, there was a lot of space left in the car I painfully paid, so I invited some Baihaka friends to come with us. Mongambe, who has relatives working there, came along and also joined us the young son of one of our best trackers, who told me the day before he had never visited the Bai. After half an hour of driving through a narrow path of red dirt and surrounded by thick vegetation, we arrived at the site. From there, we walked three kilometers to reach the platform. We had to cross a small river, very refreshing but in some points becoming a muddy surface full of elephant dung! The walk is very nice, it goes a little up to descend afterward again when you reach the level of the Bai. The path has been created by elephants and as you arrive closer to the bai, you realize how many other similar paths you can find all around, all bringing you to the Bai, the Rome of Dzanga-Shanga! Coming closer to the bay, we grow excited when we hear the strong and powerful sounds emitted by the numerous elephants already in the Bai… and after some minutes we could see the elephants! The moment you see the Bai is unforgettable; so many elephants are interacting in front of you, and when I say many I mean more than 60 elephants! At the end of the day we could observe 96 of them!!!!
We went up on the platform, happy to meet Andrea after so many years. She didn’t change a bit, still the strong and beautiful woman I kept in my memory. We talked for a while recalling past years, and she explained to me the current situation of elephants in the region. The number of elephants in the bai is increasing due to the shrinking of their habitat. There are too many logging concessions around the Bai and the hunting pressure is so high that elephants prefer to remain within the Park! Forest elephants (as all the elephants) need to migrate, thus crossing different national states (elephants don’t respect boundaries!). They are changing their behaviors because humans are destroying their habitats. Since elephants are indispensable to maintain the tropical rain forest (and with it so many animal species) I would like to invite all of you to support the difficult life goal of Andrea: to safe the African forest elephants (Check her blog in wildlifedirect.com!)
Many tourists were still arriving at the platform, so after more than 2 hours looking at those magical creatures, we left our seats to newcomers and walked back to the car. The young Baihaka was extremely excited, he had never seen so many “njoku” all together, and actually all of us were very impressed and satisfied of our visit to the Dzanga Bai!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: gorillasound

The last time I was in Bayanga was more than 6 years ago! In 2003 we used to go to Mondika through Central African Republic (CAR). Bayanga is the village where we used to buy food and from where all the trackers are coming from. To be more precise, Bayanga is the Bantu village on the Shanga River closest to the two Baihaka villages: Moussapola and Yandumbe.
We took the pirogue in Bomassa and after 7 hours we arrived at Bayanga! The village is now much larger than it was the last time I was here. People migrated to Bayanga to work for a logging company based in the area. Although the company closed more than 5 years sgo, a lot of people kept coming to Bayanga looking to work as “journalier” in tourism-related activities or in any kind of job. Tourists from around the world come to visit the elephants of Dzanga Bai and the gorillas of Bai Hokou. Tourism feeds the little economic activity in the town, where many people barely survive. Many people resort illegal activities to make ends meet; hunting in the forest not only to feed their families but also responding to the demand of bush meat to be mainly consumed in big cities. Furthermore, poaching of protected species became a terrible problem in the region, putting a risk the existence of many animals among others the magical forest elephants!
We arrived at Bayanga well after sunset, and after a frugal dinner on the river fighting with mosquitoes we had a long sleep. The day after, we went to visit the trackers’ families in Moussapola. We took a moto-taxi which in few minutes left us in front of Dona house. Everyone came to greeting us, the mamas and papas, the brothers and sisters, wives, daughters and sons of our trackers, suddenly the whole village was sitting with us in front of Dona’s house. I took pictures of all families around the village, each in front of their own house, which I will print and send to them. As soon as all the trackers showed up, we started to program our forest trip for the next day. We had to buy some manioc flour, palm wine, something to cook if the hunt wasn’t successful, water, salt and oil. We then left Moussapola to meet our dear friend Andrea Turkalo at Dzanga-Shanga national park. Andrea has spent more than 20 years studying the numerous elephants visiting the Dzanga bai. When we met in 2003 I was amazed by her ability to recognize more than 2000 (or maybe 5000!) elephants just by looking at them; she was telling me the families stories of the ones we were observing from the platform, longer and more complex soap operas than those of gorillas!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 21 2009 | By: gorillasound

Tomorrow I will leave to go with some of the trackers to Bayanga, a village close to where the trackers leave in Central African Republic. From there I will go for few days in the forest to hunt and party with the families of the people working at Mondika. It’s more than 6 years that I don’t visit their families and I’m really happy I can go this time. In addition I will have the chance to see many of the trackers that do not work anymore at Mondika, but with whom I worked in 2003, I’m really excited to see them again, most of them were just young adolescent and I’m sure now they have their own families and children!. As soon as I come back to Mondika I will tell you all about the trip, the hunt, the songs, the whole experience, as well as the feelings and emotions!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 21 2009 | By: gorillasound

This week we received a visitor at Mondika, Pablo, from Uruguay. When I go to the forest I pay attention to gorillas’ behavior and then write about it. Although I am very excited every time I go, I wanted to hear how a person felt like after a first encounter with the amazing Kingo family, so I asked him to make an interview. Pablo can’t stop talking, still excited for what he experienced. Here is a summary of the chat we had in the camp after returning from the forest, while waiting for the dinner Buba, our cook, is preparing for us.

How is to arrive at Mondika?

Oh, the walk was very interesting. It was my first time in the real rain forest. We arrived by truck to a point where we started to walk in the forest, guided by the porters. The light started to diminish as we get into the heart of this immense and intricated system of trees and lianas. The soil is red-brownish and creates an incredible contrast with the different tones of green sorrounding us. Before leaving I was thinking to wear sunglasses… clearly a stupid idea! The sun barely filters through the tall trees… Very soon we arrive to the river I knew we had to cross to arrive at the camp. In my mind I had the image of the forest ending in a clear stream, I even pictured a narrow beach next to the river! But reality couldn’t be more distant… The river actually is more like a swamp, it spreads in several narrow branches of brownish water… We walk with water up to our knees for nearly half an hour; it is a little weird at the begining but soon the fresh water feels nice in the hot weather… After crossing the river we keep walking for nearly two hours; it is not easy to keep the guys’ fast pace! We get deeper and deeper into the forest, is amazing how the vegetation changes along the way. Finally we arrive at Mondika, I can’t believe I will be living in the heart of the tropical forest!

How did you feel in your first experience visiting gorillas in the wild?

Well, I was firstly impressed by how the Baka trackers know the forest; we were walking really fast in the midst of a thick vegetation. They did a great job guiding me and leading us through the forest until we find Kingo… He really makes you hold your breadth, to see such a huge animal just a few meters from you… By just standing with his two powerful arms, shoulders at front and fists on the ground, he displays an amazing strenght… yet he looks undisturbed by our presence. It’s a very exciting experience, to be just a few steps from this big, strong and human-like animal…

How was the whole visit?

We went to find Kingo where the trackers left him the day before, but he and the rest of the group weren’t there… As they told me, they could smell they were around, so the trackers started to look for their tracks. It amazed me how they can find gorilla footprints in the mud and the traces the group leave behind to find where the gorillas are! After a while they found the group; Kingo was quietly sitted while Kusu and Ekendi didn’t stop to play with each other, making mock fights and running around. You could stare them for hours!

And Kingo?

I was first a little intimidated by Kingo’s grunts, but then I realized is his way of saying ‘I’m here’… When he’s eating he looks so quiet, you get hipnotized by his human-like way of taking things with his hands… But as soon as you see him walking and displaying all his strenght… well, he’s kind of scary! (laughs) Fascinating too… He scared the shit out of me when he charged at us! (laughs) He wasn’t really aggresive, but I’m not used to his behavior!

How was the charge?

Well, he was at five or six meters and then he turned facing us… We were right on his way, he started to approach and then run toward us, we just had time to walk one step behind while he passed next to us pushing some branches… It was just a second, so I didn’t have time to get really scared! Then we spend the rest of the day following the group around the jungle, watching them eating, the youngsters playing around…

Would you encourage a friend to visit Mondika and Kingo?

Absolutely! Watching gorillas in a zoo in comparison to walk with them in the wild is like eating canned fruit salad and home-made fruit salad… Both are similar, but they are completely different things! To visit gorillas in their natural environment is a unique experience; I’m sure anybody who loves nature will enjoy it as much as I did.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 16 2009 | By: gorillasound

As you know western gorillas include a lot of fruits (when available) in their diet. I thought it would be interesting to show you what type of fruits they love most, so I will make short videos of them eating their preferred fruits, just to have an idea of the biodiversity present at Mondika!

Females climb often trees to get fruits while Kingo most of the time wait down at the base of the tree and get what they make falling down. If nobody climbs, Kingo makes clear to everyone that the best fruits are his, actually everything is his (and the infants are not excused either and get charged by their father if they just try to get them!). Sometimes is very funny to see the females close to him, especially the high ranking ones (Mama and Mekome), faking to not be interested at all to the nice fruits around, but as soon Kingo turn his back or leave the spot, you can see them just run and get what Kingo have left or fight among them over it!

Here is a video of Kingo eating a Liamba fruit (I will tell you later the scientific name!), he, as all the individuals in his group, peal it using his teeth and lips and then chew it to get the pulp and juice! Enjoy it!

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

In the last weeks several changes happened at Mondika.

Aylin left us just a week ago, she came back in Turkey and I want to wish her all the luck and happiness of the world. Aylin!!!!! Remember to think of us sometimes!!
We are now trying to find a new assistant interested in gorillas and willing to stay here until the end of the project (other 10 months) with us! We hope she/he will arrive soon!

Arno and Mathieu contracts arrived to an end (but I’m sure they will sign for another year!), we hope to see them again here…after a month of holidays, merited holidays!

Few days ago also other 4 friends left Mondika: Andy, Mireya, Kelly and James. They came from US to make a documentary on Kingo family, and I’m sure it will be awesome! I want to thank all of them to have made me laugh so much! I miss you guys!
Mondika is now a little village, just Patrice Max and Holland…and our indispensable trackers!! I’m now in Brazzaville organizing the arrival of the new assistant and writing few other grants to fund my project. I will come to Mondika in few days. From there I will go with the trackers to their villages and meet their families. We will spend few days hunting, gathering and singing in the forest. I will be filming and taking pictures so that you can have an idea of the forest food we will eat and of the beauty of their songs.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 06 2009 | By: gorillasound

Since we are keeping records of all behaviors, sexual activity is an important part, even if happens few times per months and almost every time last less than a minute!

Yesterday, we got really excited for what we saw in the forest! But let start everything from the beginning. Two day ago, while following Kingo, we realized that the two new females were surprisingly close to him for all the early morning. After resting, Kingo vocalized asking for mating. We looked around and we saw Fini approaching him shyly. As always, we run to be sure of the female identity and to collect the data related to the sexual behavior (time, duration, position, etc.). This time we got a big surprise, instead of Fini, who was completely ignored by Kingo, our silverback went directly where Emilie was and asked her to mate. After less than an hour, we could see the same type of selection by Kingo, when he vocalized again and Emilie and Fini were both present and within 10 meters. This time Kingo decided was the turn of Fini and made his choice clear to everyone! Fini and Kingo copulated again during the same afternoon. During all day long Fini was really close to Kingo and we could see her almost all the time. She is normally avoiding us and usually hiding herself behind the bush, running when the vegetation is less thick. The fact that for sex, she is coming very close and tolerate us so well, make us hoping to be able to follow her pretty soon!

The day after we came back and we got our big surprise. We suspected to see other copulations, but we thought that was the time for Emilie again. Kingo started to call while no new females where around. We looked better and we saw Mama arriving at 10 meters away, Kingo went directly towards her and asked again, we just laughed because Mama was still breast feeding Kusu, and we were sure that she was going to leave him alone (as she did in 2007 and I’m sure sometimes after that!). But we were completely wrong, Mama started to copulate again! Kingo and Mama did it twice!! The second time Kingo put his hand under mama’s neck with extremely grace. As always the two little ones run to see from very close, and Kusu looked directly in the eyes of Mama, who looked back to him sweetly. We all were very excited, because are more than 4 years than Mama was doing the mama! She is the first wild western lowland gorilla female of which we know after how many months copulated after having a baby! When she will have the new baby, we will know when she got pregnant, and we will finally know her inter-birth interval length. In addition Kusu will be the first wild gorilla to tell us at what age was wined! Mondika, as Mbeli Bai and other few sites, are contributing to the collection of vital information about this extremely endangered species. There is so much to discover still about their behavior and ecology that any day in the forest is incredibly fascinating!!

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