I Had This Great Urge... I Had

I Shall Never Forget My First Encounter With Gorillas. Sound Preceded Sight. Odor Preceded Sound In The Form Of An Overwhelming, Musky-barnyard, Humanlike Scent. The Air Was Suddenly Rent By A High-pitched Series Of Screams Followed By The Rhythmic Rondo Of Sharp Pok-pok Chestbeats From A Great Silverbacked Male Obscured Behind What Seemed An Impenetrable Wall Of Vegetation.

None Of The Three Great Apes Is Considered Ancestral To Modern Man, Homo Sapiens, But They Remain The Only Other Type Of Extant Primate With Which Human Beings Share Such Close Physical Characteristics. From Them We May Learn Much Concerning The Behavior Of Our Earliest Primate Prototypes, Because Behavior, Unlike Bones, Teeth, Or Tools, Does Not Fossilize.

Gorillas Are Almost Altruistic In Nature. There's Very Little If Any 'me-itis.' When I Get Back To Civilization I'm Always Appalled By 'me, Me, Me.'

I Had A Wonderful Contact, Especially With Uncle Bert Who Was An Angel And Led The Whole Group Over To My Side Of A Steep Ravine I Could Not Cross To Get Over To Them

One Of The Basic Steps In Saving A Threatened Species Is To Learn More About It: Its Diet, Its Mating And Reproductive Processes, Its Range Patterns, Its Social Behavior.