Below:Emily Denstedt gathers with local nurses she trained at Gorilla
Doctors’ regional headquarters in Rwanda(bottom left), as part of an
initiative to improve human healthcare in the areaWhen the field team dart-
ed Mayani with anaesthetic, the
males in the group became agitated
and aggressive. But the dominant
silverback, Bukima, would not tol-
erate such machismo. He paced
back and forth between the Gorilla
Doctors team and the other silver-
backs and vocalised at them to calm
down until the team had finished
removing the snare.
The incident was even more
remarkable considering that ten
years earlier, criminals illegally
harvesting wood for charcoal had
attacked the Rugendo group and
killed seven of the family’s 12 goril-
las, including a 225-kilogram silver-
back. Bukima, now in his late teens,
would have been present during that
event, but he somehow knew the
doctors meant no harm.
Denstedt wonders if Bukima
remembered one of the doctors’31