The Great Apes

[Tshokwane]

Again, credits to Alan Goodall.

This is the sad story of a young female gorilla - Jozi - in one of our study groups who had her hand caught in a wire snare. This was set in the forest by poachers to catch antelopes, but, as can be seen, these snares are not selective in what they catch.

This is a video that I made in 1988 when I was Director of Karisoke Research Centre - after the murder of Dian Fossey (who I had first worked with in 1970 when I began my research there)

This was to be used by the then Digit Fund (which had been set up by Dian) to raise awareness of the problems of poaching in the National Park - and to help them raise funds.

However, they decided that ‘it was too gruesome to show to people who may have just eaten dinner!” Considering the wide range of violence, death and destruction that one sees 24/7 on TV I found this very surprising!

As I later learned from my pygmy trackers in Kahuzi- Biega National Park in Zaire,  the issue of so-called poaching was much more complicated than we first realised. These forest had once been as much their home as it was to the elephants, antelopes and gorillas. The creation of a National Park immediately dispossesed them of their land - and left them nowhere to go, no way to feed their families and a loss of their skills and traditions.

Unfortunately, Dian never accepted this and so waged her own private war on the Batwa pygmies in the Virungas - with terrible consequences for both sides.

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