The western lowland gorillas live on the other side of the continent, in the lush lowland rainforest of the western Congo basin.“There are all sorts of places in Africa where you think there should be gorillas but there aren’t any,” says James Deutsch, who runs the Wildlife Conservation Society’s programs in Africa.“They are kind of a fragile species. The lowland gorillas lick termites from tree trunks and climb for football-size fruit, while mountain gorillas eat a lot of bamboo and wild celery they inhabit ancient volcanoes and other lofty spots in East Africa, mostly in Rwanda and Uganda.
The silverbacks, which can stand six feet tall and weigh over 400 pounds, are more spectacularly silver, with gray hair from their necks to their ankles. Western lowland gorillas have shorter fur than their mountain cousins and often sport distinctive red patches on their foreheads. The western lowland gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla) is a separate species from the mountain gorillas of Dian Fossey fame.
Their portrait of the frolicking gorilla is part of an extraordinary portfolio, the first of its kind to come out of Dzanga-Sangha’s gorilla habituation program, which is in itself remarkable: Only four wild western lowland gorilla families in the world tolerate human observers. Having studied Malui for nearly a month, the photographers were ready when they saw a mischievous look on her face. “She was almost dancing with them,” Rogers remembers. Seeming to relish the rush of wings, she paused to let the butterflies envelop her. She plowed straight through one drove of butterflies resting in the bais, as the swampy meadows in the forest are known. The harassed apes bashed away at the insects and clamped their mouths shut so none would fly in.Įxcept, that is, for the family’s dominant female, Malui. They swarmed over Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah and also seemed to pester the gorilla family that the photographers were following. Furious storms of butterflies filled the air, and their frail brown forms carpeted the earth. Butterfly season came suddenly to the Dzanga-Sangha reserve, a dense rainforest in the Central African Republic.
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