April 2020 | SMITHSONIAN 43fi ghts—always over females—are not unheard of ).
“The gorilla is one of the most maligned animals in
the world,” Fossey wrote two generations ago, try-
ing to dispel the King Kong myths. “After more than
2,000 hours of direct observation, I can account for
less than fi ve minutes of what might be called ag-
gressive behavior.”
Mountain gorillas would have been extinct by
now if it weren’t for humans. Then again, mountain
gorillas, whose only natural predator is the leopard,
would never have been threatened if it weren’t for
humans.
The heartening rise in mountain gorilla numbers
may be the most important ecological success sto-
ry of our time. It has been based on collaboration
rather than competition, on communication rather
than isolation , on selfl ess commitment rather than
selfi sh greed. In other words, it is based on a rather
encouraging change, or even evolution: Humans
have been acting like gorillas.A juvenile in the
Bwindi Impene-
trable National
Park. Mountain
gorillas remain
endangered, but
recent popula-
tion gains buoy
conservationists.