Page 27 - 2017 RWANDA

Watching the Rangers and guides who are with these animals every day

protecting and exhibiting them revealed that they have developed a

primitive language of sounds to communicate with them. They purr,

softly "grrr" at them, rumble a bit, and use hand signals to back up their

sounds. The gorillas understand these efforts at "talking" and respond.

Some sounds are reassuring to the gorillas, reminding them that we
mean them no harm. Others are warning signals directing the animals

not to come any closer to the observers. Some just communicate a

pleasure in one another's company peacefully.

As I said before, this experience, even combined with my observations

of captive gorillas, solidify my belief that these creatures are sentient

beings with a consciousness even though it is probably different from
our own. The beauty of animals, especially the higher primates, is that

they do not display the terrible behaviors of human beings which are so

well documented in the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. (Well, I

guess I have to modify that statement in light of the chimpanzee wars

that Jane Goodall documented during her length studies of that
species.)

Here's one last note on how organized these folks are with the gorilla

trekking and how determined they are that all visitors get their chance

to observe them. We had noticed in our wanderings over the property

of the Lodge a small, middle-aged Japanese lady who walked haltingly

and with difficulty using a cane. After the first trek, we just could not
imagine how this lady was going to negotiate those steep and

treacherous trails. But we were assured that she had also done the first

trek visiting a different family from ours and that she was planning to

trek on the second opportunity as well! We were flabbergasted and