Category: Gorillas
Our Stories:
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The Battle of the Great Apes: Gorillas versus Chimpanzees
When I learned I was going to do an internship in Uganda for six months, I immediately started researching the country and its highlights. Naturally, one of the first things that came up was gorilla tracking. I remember opening the page, scrolling through it and getting excited, until I saw the price tag and realised…
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What Do Gorillas Think of Face Masks?
Hello, my dears? Are you still there? For me, I am still with you, trust me! The reason why you haven’t heard from me for a while is that I was busy busy busy working with two different TV crews. They wanted to capture the best of Volcanoes National Park — and when you work…
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Complex Social Lives of Mountain Gorillas (Including Sex)
Who Can Be a Silverback? A silverback is an adult male gorilla, typically over 12 years old and named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back. They have large canine teeth that come with maturity. Silverbacks are the strong, dominant troop leaders but not all have this position; some may have never…
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King Kong vs. Gentle Gorilla
As the Godzilla vs. Kong movie opens globally tomorrow, let us investigate why people got gorillas so wrong initially, and how they started to realise the mistake. History of Gorilla Fantasies While Batwa “Pygmies” had coexisted with mountain gorillas in the rainforests of central Africa since time immemorial, the rest of the world took quite a bit longer.…
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My Commitment to Nabanga
Jambo sana! I am Amy Porter, a wildlife behavioural ecologist and conservation biologist with a special love of primates and birds. I am from the US (Pacific Northwest) but I have worked all over the world, and recently I spent four years studying Grauer’s gorillas and bonobos and working on community conservation projects in the…
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Name-Calling in the Virungas
Hello, my friends? I am back home from what we call the prevention area, the zone in which we are kept isolated for two weeks as we track mountains gorillas. Today I want to tell you about some of my favourite gorillas. I know the names and personalities of about 150 of them but some are…
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Not so Close Encounters, Please
Your first hike through the lush forest, entrance to a clearing, and face to face encounter a family of Mountain Gorillas in the wild, should be life experience enough for anyone. But in these days of social media, it may not be — we need selfies as well. It may be such selfies of friends…
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Grumpy Silverback
Hi! I’m Marcus Westberg, a longtime Gorilla Highlands collaborator. I’m originally from Sweden, but work as a photojournalist all over the world — though Africa is where my heart is. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be posting a mostly-weekly column focusing on some of my favorite images and experiences from the Gorilla Highlands region, usually…
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Why Gorilla Numbers Keep Growing
Great news: the three Covid-infected gorillas at the San Diego Zoo have fully recovered. They showed only light symptoms — cough and lack of energy — during sickness but with this naughty virus you really never know… Last week we updated you on how gorilla tracking has been made safe for the animals in the…
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