“In the jungle, we advance like a dancer”

Where does this passion for gorillas come from?

I was 8 years old and I was looking at a documentary on two gorillas who scanned a chameleon on the branch of a bush. The fact that an animal can observe another fascinated me. One of the two primates began to gently caress the reptile by following the crest of his back to his tail. Such a sensitivity in these hairy giants, it turned me over! From there, making it my object of study has become my “dream in the drawer”, as we say in Italy, the one we think of never being able to achieve. My father absolutely wanted my two sisters and I doing law, medicine or engineering studies, so that we can win a good job. As I am very stubborn, I managed to register in animal biology at the Faculty of Sapienza in Rome.

But why do the gorillas of the Western Plains?

I was lucky to be able to leave as a volunteer in the Central African Republic in 2000 to complete my late studies. At the time, when we thought Gorillas, we imagined the gorillas of the mountains, hairy and black, on which many research had already been carried out. We only knew those of the West through their fellows who live in captivity in zoos. These are obese, because they move little. When I put my suitcases in the jungle, I expected to see primates less pleasant to look at than the mountain gorillas. Once in the forest, I realized that they were in fact much more beautiful, with a hair of a degraded gray to the tip of the heels, the orange head …

Are these gorillas more interesting for a primatologist?

Yes, as they live in the forest, they roam miles in order to pick the fruits of dispersed trees, their main source of food according to the period of the year. This constraint triggers a strong food competition between them, and therefore a host of exciting behaviors to observe.

They also require great patience from scientists. Explain to us.

We can only observe the gorillas if we gradually succeed in blending into their environment, until they no longer pay attention to us. This is called the habitation process. For those in the mountains, only two years are necessary. For those of the West, it takes seven, eight years. I ended up saying to myself that with this work, I could never have a woman’s life or become a mother! But I succeeded in extremis : I have a companion, and our daughter was born last year, the year of my 46 years (tall smile)).

What happens, concretely, during the regular period?

We are looking for groups, helped by AKA trackers, a people of hunter-gatherers whose support is essential, because without them, we could not follow the traces of the gorillas, especially of the same family. At the beginning, we approach the primates without making noise, we hear them, and we try to place ourselves in a place where they can see us. We make a little snack to attract their attention. They look at us, cry from afar, escape. After several months, the chef gets closer to ten meters to load us, he breaks the surrounding vegetation, roars like a lion …

And what do we do at that time?

We especially do not take our legs around his neck and we continue to behave as if nothing had happened! To see the western gorillas well in the forest, you have to approach. Sometimes the silver back (Name given to the male chief, editor’s note) or females are afraid and load. One day, a male extended his arm so close to me at the end of his load that I felt a breath grazing my face. He was visibly very angry. There we must remain motionless. Otherwise, we risk a beautiful bite. Over the years, the silver back understands that we are not a danger for his family and ends up tolerating.

What should any good primatologist in the field know?

First, learn not to make noise while walking. In the forest, on the track of these western gorillas, we must advance like a dancer. They consider noise as an assault. But the greatest danger is the elephants: they can feel the vibrations, perceive our presence and as they are very fearful, when they charge you, it’s another story! Then, for reasons of work but also of security, it is very important to know the local language to speak with the AKA trackers.

What was the hardest part, during all these years of jungle?

During my second year spent in the forest, my boyfriend, with whom I was for ten years, left me by satellite phone. I was crying all the tears of my body and had to wait several days to be comforted by my mother, because at the time, you could only communicate once a week with his relatives. It was terrible! I had a malaria crisis a few hours later. In the jungle, you must have a hell of a health. Once, I returned to Italy walking like a 90 -year -old woman, because of a worm who had entered my feet. I spoke in slow motion. I also stayed sick for a year without knowing why, I had migraines every day. I have often returned to Europe with health concerns, which did not facilitate my strong desire to become a mother.

In the forest, do you wear masks against primates?

Yes, to protect gorillas: they are so genetically close to us that they can catch our diseases, without having the immune defenses to fight. A simple cold can kill them. Hence the importance of not touching them.

A female, Malui, moved you a lot. Do we inevitably fall “” in love »»when we spend years observing the primates?

I’m afraid (laugh)). When looking at a western gorilla in the eyes, you almost feel like you are facing a human. Those of Malui shone with an exceptional light of intelligence. One day, I was busy raising her urine to analyze them and she observed me so carefully that I started to explain (in Italian) what I was doing when I should have kept my distance. Another time, when I returned to the jungle after two years of absence, she saw me between the leaves, suddenly stopped with the heel raised, the arm and the fist towards the ground, and fixed me, always in the same position, for several minutes. She had recognized me! I will never forget this moment.

Why is your book called Queen Kong ?

I discovered that females played a much more important role than you think. The silver back is the protector of the group, it is up to him that the best pieces of food come back, but it happens that the females move away from him while he rests. I was particularly impressed by the one we called Indolia. The silver back of her group having died, she took her place for several months and guided the other females, until the day she found a new group. Faced with the chief, she adopted the typical posture of the silver back, her back arched, her head high. He loaded him, she shouted but challenged her and even inflicted a blow to put him back in his place. It was the first time that I saw an adult female behaving like a dominant male!

What do we learn from the way these primates are a company?

We understand how the need to cooperate must have been decisive in the appearance of human language. The big apes are like a window on our origins, they are our nearest living cousins. Gorillas demonstrate, for example, that a good leader is the one who listens to others. When the group has to move, everyone gives their opinion with a groan, it is not only the silver back that chooses the moment. To find out in which direction to go, on the other hand, it is the most dominant chef and females who are then expressed by specific vocalizations, which we listen to. Multiple threats weigh on large apes – deforestation, poaching, epidemics like Ebola … It is everyone’s interest to protect them.