Gorillas Outsmart Poachers: Are the Apes Rising? | NewsFeed | TIME.com
Gorillas in Rwanda are outwitting potential captors and saving their peers from deadly traps.
According to field staff from the
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, several young gorillas have been spotted destroying snares that are set to maim and kill wild apes. “Today, two juveniles and one blackback worked together to deactivate two snares and how they did it demonstrated an impressive cognitive skill,” a staff person from the Karisoke Research Center
told the Huffington Post. Just two days before, one such snare had severely injured a young ape named Ngwino, who dislocated her shoulder in a desperate attempt to escape. What’s worse, she contracted gangrene from cuts to her leg.
John Ndayambaje, the Fossey Fund field data coordinator, said he saw a group of gorillas nearing a snare, when a silverback called Vuba made a sound of warning. Two juveniles and a blackback responded by running toward the snare and destroying it with their bare hand. They did the same to another snare nearby.
This is only the latest demonstration of ape intelligence documented by researchers. Last year, scientists in Senegal
observed chimpanzees using sharpened spears to kill smaller mammals before eating them. In the 1990s, Stanford researchers
saw chimps hunting colobus monkeys with their bare hands. And decades of research shows that apes have
better memories than college students,
learn language through exposure (as human young do), and
can be both socially violent and deeply empathic.
Even poop-throwing — that age-old indicator of ape idiocy — is actually a sign of high intelligence; scientists
have found that chimps who throw their feces often and accurately tend to be the smartest and best communicators in their group.
So will gorillas soon start trapping their poachers, in a strange reversal of roles? Apparently, they didn’t need all that
ALZ-112 after all.
Gorillas Seen Destroying Poachers' Snares In Rwanda
The Huffington Post UK | By
Ted Thornhill
Poachers’ snares pose one of the biggest threats to mountain gorilla populations according to campaigners – and it seems that the gorillas themselves have worked this out, because they’ve been observed dismantling traps.
Field staff of the
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda report that on Monday they saw several young gorillas destroying snares – which maim and often kill gorillas – with their bare hands.
“We knew that gorillas do this but all of the reported cases in the past were carried out by adult gorillas, mostly silverbacks,” said Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program coordinator at the Karisoke Research Center.
One of the young gorillas destroying a snare
“Today, two juveniles and one blackback worked together to deactivate two snares and how they did it demonstrated an impressive cognitive skill.”
Dian Fossey staff explained that just two days previously a juvenile called Ngwino was caught in a snare with the rope making severe cuts into her leg, resulting in gangrene.
She also dislocated her shoulder as she desperately tried to escape.
Experts said the gorillas showed amazing intelligence
Fossey Fund staff intervened with vets from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project but were unable to save her.
Hers is the second death this year resulting from a gorilla being caught in a poacher’s snare.
John Ndayambaje, Fossey Fund field data coordinator, reported that he saw one snare very close to the group.
Since the gorillas were moving in that direction, he decided to deactivate it.
A silverback called Vuba pig-grunted at him - a vocalisation of warning - and at the same time juveniles called Dukore and Rwema together with a blackback called Tetero ran toward the snare and together pulled the branch used to hold the rope.
They saw another snare nearby and as quickly as before they destroyed the second branch and pulled the rope out of the ground.
Four other snares were also removed by Dian Fossey trackers in the same area.
“Our battle to detect and destroy snares from the park is far from over, however, and the recent death of Ngwino, has given us all further motivation. Today we can proudly confirm that gorillas are doing their part too,” Felix Ndagijimana, director of the Karisoke Center, said in a press release.
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