by John Fowler
Bright, inquisitive orphan, Bonne Année, at our bivouac camp in Zaire, in preparation for her ill-fated release attempt. If it wasn’t out of reach, she thought it was hers.
Dian at her desk in the bedroom of her large cabin, the same room in which she would one day be found murdered. Dian pecked away at writing much of Gorillas in the Mist here. The raised nest box, to which I returned baby Bonne Année each evening, is visible on stilts in the foreground.
Stuart Perlmeter, Dian Fossey, me and Bonne Année, in pensive pursuit of Group 4, to release the baby back into the wild. We would fail that day, but the outcome would not be as dire as what was yet to come.
Blackback Ziz, a subadult male, lounges in a tree on Mount Visoke while clouds drift through the forest. He would become the last silverback to lead Group 5 before it split into Pablo’s and Shinda’s Groups.
Family photo of members of Group 5: Pablo, Pantsy with newborn baby Jozi, silverback Beethoven and motherless Shinda. Here they have ended a rest period and look to be moving on again to resume feeding. A stalk of wild celery, a favorite gorilla food item, is in the right foreground.
Me taking notes on Beethoven’s feeding. He pulled down the vernonia tree, a relative of the sunflower, to get at the nutty-tasting fruits that form at the end of the long dry season. Beethoven, with second silverback Icarus, successfully defended a prime feeding area from other groups on Mount Visoke’s southwestern slopes.
Beethoven feasts on vernonia bulbs, the seed pods that form after the flowers fade. He pulled the whole tree down for his convenience. Regrettably, I sampled these nutty, crunchy fruits, before realizing too late that each was riddled with tiny wriggling insect larvae.
I have often been asked about how close we got to the gorillas. A better question might be, how close did they get to us? Cheeky Pablo dropped onto my lap whenever he felt like it, as if that’s what we researchers were there for.
Puck, an adult female in Group 5 rests next to Peter Veit, while he casually writes his famously good notes, preferred by Dian. She liked his photos too.
Pursed lips are an expression of tension for a gorilla, as seen here with little Bonne Année in her new home with the remnants of Group 4. The silverback Peanuts is keeping a wary eye on me. After spending her days with me for two months, the baby thought it was fine to come sit in my lap on our first reunion. Peanuts put a stop to that in a screaming rampage I wouldn’t forget.
Half-sisters in Group 5, Poppy and Muraha, resting together affectionately. Gorilla’s faces are very expressive; one can easily interpret the subtle looks of mirth and contentment here.
Little Cantsbee, son of Puck, was only two years old when I first saw him. Dian thought Puck was a male and exclaimed, “It can’t be!” when she gave birth to her firstborn. Cantsbee would one day take over his brother Pablo’s Group, which would grow into the largest group of mountain gorillas ever documented.
Silverback Icarus, the secondary male of Group 5. He was believed to be the son of Beethoven, and was allowed females of his own within the group to which he sired his offspring.
Maggie in her mother, Effie’s, arms. I noticed that babies first learned about solid foods while watching their mothers feed and sampling what food items a mother selected from the many choices in their surroundings.
Tuck, a subadult female of Group 5, was captivated by her own reflection in my camera lens. She was also fascinated by the new babies in the group as she observed the parenting skills of the mature females. She would soon be having her own.
The bright and ever-curious female, Tuck, looking almost human. The distinctive noseprint of each gorilla serves as a means of identification for research. Tuck was fascinated by cameras and made for a willing photographic model. I think she was studying us humans, too.
Little Shinda of Group 5, became motherless after the silverback Icarus killed Marchessa in an unprecedented event. As silverbacks themselves, Shinda and Pablo would one day split Group 5 into two groups of their own, becoming among the most long-range scientifically-observed animals on the planet.
Nude reclining. Group 5’s adult female, Puck in repose, languorous in the fleeting sunlight after a rain. Dian thought both Puck and Tuck were males, hence the names. Here, Puck is obviously feminine, and producing milk for her baby Canstbee.
Silverback Icarus of Group 5 sauntering across the grassy clearing called the Tourist Spot halfway up the Porter Trail. He served peacefully as Beethoven’s secondary silverback within the group, assisting mightily to defend territory during interactions with other groups.
Peter Veit, me, and Stuart Perlmeter in a bivouac camp on the cloud-covered rim of Mount Visoke. From there, we hiked down to the placid Lake Ngezi on the Rwanda-Zaire border, ever in search of Nunkie’s missing gorilla group. My parents gave me that sweater for Christmas, okay?
Me and the intrepid gorilla tracker, Rwelekana, up in the clouds atop a misty Mount Visoke. His long association with Dian Fossey would ultimately lead to a tragic end.
Karisoke gorilla trackers, Nameye, Baraqueza, and woodman Bernardi join porters to strip saplings and deftly assemble a gurney, on the spot, to transport Marchessa’s body out of the forest. The locals had intimate familiarity with forest resources and surprised us with their skills.
Stranded at the Nairobi airport, I am rescued and swept up into the luxurious estate of Karl and Anna Merz in Karen, Kenya. Anna’s passion for wildlife conservation simmered just beneath this facade and she would one-day trade horses for black rhinos, giving all this up to help launch the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.
Kanyaragana, Dian Fossey’s long-time housekeeper, cook, and launderer, asked me to escort him to the top of Mount Visoke to see its hidden crater lake. He took it all in quietly for a long time. I was surprised that he had never been before, but neither had Dian.
Here, I am perched on a giant hagenia tree on the southern slopes of Mount Visoke while visiting Peanuts’s Group 4. Days like these were idyllic in the long dry season of the Virunga Volcanoes. The sleepy town of Rumangabo, Zaire was visible below in the distance. It would become a hotbed of political strife and military logistics in troubled times to come.
Young tracker in training, Toni, just returning from a trip with Dian’s poacher patrol, a dead duiker slung over his shoulders. Dian would let the men keep and eat the fresh meat that they salvaged from the poachers’ snares.
Camp domesticity. Old hagenia trees fell with some regularity in and around camp. Mukera the woodman would chop these into suitable pieces to stock our cabins. He built a fire in each of our stoves each night, and in Dian’s large fireplace. He also had a bawdy sense of humor and could play the inanga, a traditional stringed instrument.
Karisoke staffers: Mukera, the woodman who chopped wood and made our nightly fires, me, gorilla trackers, Toni and Nameye, Peter Veit, and Dian’s housekeeper, Kanyaragana who cooked, cleaned and did our laundry. After each twenty-one days in camp, they swapped out with an alternate crew.
Teamwork in the midst of gorillas: Me, Rwelekana, Jean-Pierre von der Beck, Rosalind Aveling, Sam Koechlin, and Peter Veit. Making hard work the best of times. Important conservation benefactor, Sam Koechlin was a Swiss business magnate, and along with his wife, the renowned Olympic equestrienne Pat Koechlin-Smyth, joined us on a trek to see Group 5. Image courtesy of Rosalind Aveling.
A birth near the end of my stay. Pantsy of Group 5, tends to her newborn we named Jozi. A baby will have pink skin for the first 20 days, before turning black and moving from hanging ventrally, to riding on the mother’s back.
Pablo, proving that he’s big enough to knock me over. It’s just as well that I’ll be gone before he becomes a silverback. He would one day go on to form Pablo’s group, a large family group that would break all records in size at 65 members.
Conrad Aveling, Peter Veit, and me on the summit of Mount Karisimbi, the tallest of the Virunga Volcanoes and one of Africa’s highest peaks. Mount Mikeno looms in the clouds behind us in Zaire.
Beethoven, lead silverback of Group 5, looks out over the farmlands where forest once was.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Before this story was a book, it was an experience, and for that, I must first acknowledge Terry Maple. He has given countless opportunities to so many people. If you wanted, he could drop you into the middle of a zoo or the middle of Africa. It was up to you to find your way out, and you might have quite a story to tell. Thanks for the memories, Terry.
After I began putting my memories into words, it was my good fortune to have the late author Rod Thorp take interest in my work and teach me how best to write prose worthy of a book. He was gone too soon, but did get “the boat out of the harbor,” as he promised. For that, I will always be grateful.
I must also express due gratitude for my publisher, Claiborne Hancock, who said yes to my manuscript and made this book happen. Many thanks also to Jessica Case and the creative team at Pegasus Books, including Sabrina Plomitallo-González, Bowen Dunnon, and Katie McGuire. I give special thanks to Maria Fernandez for her patience and letting me have some fun in the layout process.
Andrew Plumptre of Cambridge University’s Conservation Research Institute and Julian Kerbis Peterhans of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History helped provide taxonomical names of the lesser-known flora and fauna mentioned in this book, information which I could not find elsewhere. I am grateful to them for their expertise and taking the time to respond to my queries.
I must also express my gratitude to Judy Chidester from the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda who so generously took us gorilla students in, providing a home away from home during our forays off the mountain. I don’t think she realized how much that meant to so many. I also thank her for helping me recall the names of those we knew along the way, and for her enduring friendship through the years.
I have not forgotten my writer pals, Paul Abercrombie, Norman “Buddy” Chastain, and Bill Chastain, for their supportive camaraderie throughout our adventures and misadventures as aspiring authors in the jungles of the book biz. Thanks for making it interesting and hilarious.
My wife Janet Fowler, daughter Isabel Fowler, and son Ben Fowler have also shared in my hopes and aspirations for writing this book, and I thank them for their loving support and enthusiasm along the way. At the end of the day, this book is for them.
I also want to acknowledge my brothers—Paul Fowler, Steve Fowler, and Dennis Fowler—for the enriching childhood adventures that older brothers bring. I give special thanks to Steve for his helpful and technical advice on waterproof paper, sturdy boots, and pistols.
My parents are gone, but not forgotten. I thank them for their supportive tolerance of my insatiable fascination with all things wild, as well as putting up with the likes of tarantulas, monkeys, cockatoos, and other living things I brought into the house, at least until they finally sent me off to where the wild things are.
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
A
African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, 115–116, 128, 143, 246
Akeley, Carl, 47, 103, 195, 359
Alpine zone, 157–158, 160, 357–358
American Museum of Natural History, 195
Antelopes, 10, 50, 150–151, 259, 263. See also Duikers
Anti-poaching goals, 79–85, 148–152, 258–260, 346, 374. See also Poacher patrol
Arundinaria alpina, 44
Asio abyssinicus, 342
Audubon Zoo, xiii, 365–366, 369
Augustus (gorilla), 237, 345, 364, 368
Autopsy, 244, 299–300, 307–309, 375
Aveling, Conrad, 329, 332–338, 358, 367, 371
Aveling, Rosalind, 329, 333–338, 367, 371
B
Baboon research, 266, 314–315
Bamboo, 44, 67, 250
Baraqueza (tracker), 90–93, 162–165, 206–207, 220, 241, 260, 374–376
Basili (housekeeper), 97, 147, 162–164, 278, 329
Beethoven (gorilla), xx, 92–93, 100–101, 132, 175, 208–216, 249, 283, 299–303, 311, 351
Beetsme (gorilla), 134, 278
Benda Lema, François, 24, 27–28, 62, 68, 80, 224, 238, 246, 268
Bernardi (tracker), 344
Bird-watching, 246, 258, 318, 321–322, 324, 341–342
Bivouac, 174, 182–183, 186–202, 230
Black magic, 35–36, 256, 291, 310, 369
Black rhinos, 322, 326–327
Black-fronted duiker, 50, 259. See also Duikers
Black-headed waxbills, 48
Blue monkey, 52–53. See also Kima
Bonne Année (baby gorilla). See also Charlie, Sophie, Josephine, N’gee, Nani
adopted family of, 344–345
caring for, 372
death of, 367
film of, 203–221, 245
name changes for, 105, 148, 173, 227
observations of, 344–345
painting of, 242, 295
pictures with, 225
release of, 203–221, 227–228, 314, 367–368
resting place of, 375
sketch of, 242
updates on, 364
visiting, 230–234
Borneo research camp, xi
Brown-necked parrots, 258
Brutus (gorilla), 98, 175
Bushbucks, 50, 83, 87, 109, 259, 277, 346, 371–372
C
Campbell, Bob, 187
Cantsbee (gorilla), 99–100, 132, 216, 249, 301–303
Carduus nyassanus, 71
Carex runsoroensis, 157
Carr, Rosamund, 117, 255, 330–331, 359
Catcher in the Rye, The, 319
Cephalophus nigrifrons, 50
Cercopithecus albogularis, 323
Cercopithecus mitis, 52
Charlie (baby gorilla). See also Bonne Année; Josephine
caring for, 65, 75–76, 104–112, 130–148
description of, 25–26
meeting, 51–53
name changes for, 105, 148, 173, 227
Chidester, Judy
at Karisoke, 51–53, 56–63, 65–68, 77, 362
meeting, 18–19
staying with, 18–27, 330, 349
Chimpanzee research, xi, 270–271, 314
Cindy (pet dog), 51, 179, 223–224, 262, 287–289, 295–297, 346, 368
Cleo (gorilla), 368
Cloud forest, 22, 42, 194, 196, 203–204, 263
Coco (gorilla), 48, 76, 82, 153, 173
Cologne Zoo, 153, 173
Conrad, Joseph, 43, 265, 373
Cornell University, xii, 12, 16, 64, 116, 129, 143, 148, 222–223
Corvus albicollis, 47
Cousteau, Jacques, 188
Crane, Stephen, 236
Cricetomys gambianus, 89
Crocuta crocuta, 350
D
Damaliscus lunatus, 263
Darwin, Charles, 10, 16
De Ruiter, Jan, 235, 237
Dendrohyrax arboreus, 166
Dendrosenecio adnivalis, 157
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, 370–371, 376
Digit (gorilla), 52, 84, 104, 128, 149, 247, 375
Digit Fund, 128, 143, 370. See also Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Dineson, Isak, 319
Disa stairsii, 258
Dormice, 344
Duikers, 50, 83, 150–153, 259, 346, 371–372
E
Eardley, Dorothy, 21, 30–31
East Africa study program, 6–11
Ecotourism, 68–69, 371. See also Tourism
Effie (gorilla), 132, 210–215, 236–238, 249, 268, 360
Elephant nettle, 71, 91
Escher, Liza, 18, 20, 51–53, 56–63, 65–66, 77, 174
Estrilda atricapilla, 48
F
Fauna and Flora Preservation Society, 115
Fawcett, Katie, 375–376
Finches, 321
&
nbsp; Fischer’s turaco, 318
Flightless birds, 321–322
Flossie (gorilla), 52, 179, 247, 375
Forest buffaloes, 49, 127, 159, 165–170, 193–197, 241, 257, 263, 276–279, 350–357, 371–373
Forest elephants, 247, 257–264, 310, 342, 353–357
Fossey, Dian
accomplishments of, xiii, 128, 143, 346, 364, 367–370, 375–376
arrival in Africa, 103
book by, 346, 364, 367–368
career choices of, 103
contact from, 363–365
Digit Fund and, 128, 143, 370
early years of, 102–103, 224, 288
education of, 103, 178
gravesite of, 374–375
leaving Karisoke, 222–226, 295–297
meeting, 22–25
murder of, xi–xv, 369–370
research by, xi–xx, 12–14, 93–113, 119–126, 131–132
return of, 265–295
teaching position for, 12, 16, 84, 143, 148, 222–223
traveling with, 25–42
working with, 43–222, 314, 366–367, 372
Fowler, Dennis, 1
Fowler, Paul, 1
Fowler, Steve, 1, 15
