Our two favorite animals are the polar bear and the gorilla.  You may have noticed that we’ve added the images of a gorilla and a polar bear to the site’s Home Page.  They’re looking at you.  To view the Packit Toilet demo video - you have to click on the gorilla's image.  To subscribe to this blog - you have to click on the polar bear's image.  Obviously we want to initiate a deeper awareness of and an involvement with the survival of these magnificent animals.  Today’s post is about gorillas who live in vanishing wildernesses.

Maybe it started after seeing King Kong pounding his chest on top of the Empire State building - swatting off biplanes (yah we’re talking about the old movie version) - stepping on cars - and gently holding in his hand the young Canadian actress Fay Wray (she died in 2004 at the age of 96).  

The 1933 movie wasn’t a Disney cartoon with talking animals.  It was an attempt to demonstrate something quite human about the greatest of the apes - in this case a 50-foot tall gorilla.  Not that the gorillas have a soft spot for blonds, but that they have a soft spot - a clearly visible emotional life.  They exhibit all sorts of feelings: suffering, glee, kindness, ferocity, and yet are outstanding parents.  They like to spend their days at home with their families.  It was these real emotional aspects of the gorilla that made the movie a success.

Often portrayed as violent and dangerous, gorillas are really gentle, intelligent creatures.  Displays of aggression occur when the family unit, particularly babies, are in danger.  The silverback male will rise up on his hind legs, pound his chest and bare his teeth.  Unfortunately, these very actions to protect themselves make gorillas an easy target for poachers - which we saw in the The Anthony Hopkins movie Instinct.  In that movie, Hopkins is a scientist living amongst them - learning about them.  He has this meeting with one of the great silverbacks, albeit a sad one.  Gorillas live in groups of between 5 and 30 gorillas - led by an old patriarch - called a silverback because of the distinctive grey pattern that grows in at full maturity.  

There are 3 kinds of gorillas in the world.  All of them live in the jungles of Africa.  All of them are endangered.  They are the most endangered mammals in the world.  They’ve survived, barely, decades of civil war in Central and East Africa.  Their habitat is being devastated by the hour.  And, of course, they, like most of the other creatures on the planet, suffer from man’s intrusiveness - in this case from diseases like Ebola.

Good News

Fortunately there are a number of groups and even government agencies trying to save the gorilla from extinction.  The mountain gorillas now total about 700 - and appear to be slowly increasing because of the protective measures in place over the last few years.  But the western lowland gorilla, faces a severe Ebola crisis that has cause a 56 percent decline in their population.

Bad News

Their only natural enemy are human beings.  Human beings are totally responsible should this creature become extinct.  Conflict between humans, poaching them for every imaginable reason, and logging, are forcing gorillas away from their habitat and threatening their survival.  You can Google “gorilla conservation” and learn about a number of conservation groups and organizations that are trying to help these wondrous creatures survive the continuing onslaught of man.  We urge you to make some effort to help - either financially or via your own blog or through direct political participation.