Yesterday I was following Kingo with Mamandele. Kingo was calmly eating and Kusu was sitting about 10m from Kingo and 10m from us. Kusu was sitting on a tree root that came out over the path so he could see right down the path. We were also sitting on the path but behind Kusu. Suddenly Kusu looks very hard at something down the path. Then he rushes back and climbs a small tree. He is about 3m up and still staring very intently up the path. As soon as he does this Kingo leaps up (he was sitting down) and starts staring in the same direction as Kusu. Mamandele also starts staring down the path trying to see what it is that they have seen. Everyone stays like that for what seems like a very long time, although it is probably only one minute. Then Kingo runs away! He ran back about 10m and remains very alert, turning his head as if he is listening for something. Kusu climbs down the tree and runs to be behind Kingo. I look at Mamandele who is still looking down the path. I ask him what it was, but he says that he doesn’t know, but it wasn’t an elephant or a leopard. Kingo sits down but is still very alert. Kusu comes and sits very close to Kingo and every so often reaches out to touch Kingo’s back.
Mamandele told me that Kusu probably saw an antelope and became scared and that made Kingo become very alert.That makes sense to me. I spent one year working at Mbeli Bai and sometimes the sitatungas (swamp antelopes) would “scare” the younger gorillas, normally by coming to close. Sometimes the silverbacks would then display towards the sitatunga, but sometimes the fear of the younger gorillas would set off the whole group and they would all run away.
