Baby gorillas often panic and scream
when their mothers go under, and
this can distress the whole group.
Sometimes babies need to be anaes-
thetised just to keep everyone calm
- doctors and gorillas alike.
Suspicious silverbacks can cause
even more trouble by deciding to
‘protect’ their sleeping kin and
threaten the approaching doctors.
They may even charge and bite, so
porters and trackers must stand in
a perimeter around the working vet-
erinarians.
On this day, though, the entire
Rushegura group was just as unim-
pressed by the doctors as Buzinza’s
baby was.
IN HER FORMER ROLEas an ER vet,
Denstedt handled intensive cas-
es – dogs run over by cars, for ex-
ample, or feline cancers. Although
she’s trained to focus on her task,
she finds it impossible not to form
an emotional connection with the
animals she treats. “All my patients
matter to me,” she says. “Most of
them have names, and if you spend
enough time with them you feel re-
sponsible for their care.”
The similarity between the gorillas
and humans brings an even great-
er sense of connection. “When they
look at you, you can almost sense this
extra level of understanding and
intelligence,” Denstedt explains. “I
think dogs are smart, but there’s just
something about looking at the face
of a gorilla. It feels human-like.”
The gorillas behave like humans,
too. Denstedt recalls how juve-
nile gorillas will often sneak up on
a tracker or a guide, touch their leg,
then scurr y off as if playing a game
of tag. Gorillas are not supposed to
get that close to humans, and the
trackers scold these youngsters
with repetitive grunts that indicate- in mock gorilla language – that
they should stop messing around.
Like naughty children every where,
though, some of them ignore the
rebuke and sneak up to tag again.
Sometimes the gorillas even seem
to know the doctors’ intentions.
In September 2017, a baby named
Mayani of the Rugendo group was
caught in a poacher’s snare in the
Democrat ic Republic of the Con-
go. Trackers had managed to cut
Mayani loose, but Gorilla Doctors
were called in to remove a length of
nylon cord tightly wound around the
b a b y ’s w r i s t.
“THERE’S JUST
SOMETHING ABOUT
LOOKING AT THE
FACE OF A GORILLA.
IT FEELS HUMAN-LIKE,”
SAYS DENSTEDT(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) ROBERT HAASMANN/GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY OF EMILY DENSTEDT; SKYLER BISHOP30 Augus t 2019
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