Gorilla watching trips are an incredible experience, with baby gorillas clinging to their mothers as silverback gorillas watch over them protectively. This allows a group of up to 8 people to spend an hour with a gorilla family in their native habitat. Travelers pay anywhere from $600 (in Uganda) to $1500 (in Rwanda) for a gorilla trekking permit. So, with interest in the species at an all-time high, perhaps it’s no surprise that the popularity of gorilla safaris has surged dramatically in recent years. A 17-year-old silverback gorilla named Harambe was shot in the Cincinnati Zoo after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. The incident instigated a huge amount of public debate, and drew further media attention to the increasingly endangered species. In 2016 gorillas were dominating headlines again, but for all the wrong reasons. By the time she passed away in 2018 at age 46, Koko had learned to adapt and combine words to express herself. Koko taught from an early age to communicate with American sign language, could use over 1,000 signs and understand over 2,000 spoken (English) words.
More recently, Project Koko turned a young female gorilla into an international celebrity. Fossey was not only a trailblazer in primatology and gorilla research, but she’s widely credited with habituating the Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda to human presence. The 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist showcased the groundbreaking work of Dian Fossey, a highly controversial figure in the world of gorilla conservation. These gentle giants have loomed large in the public consciousness for nearly a century, ever since a fictionalized version of the great ape, King Kong, began appearing in movies in 1933. They even have impressive language skills! The gorilla lifespan can be up to 50 to 60 years in captivity (though they tend to die younger in the wild). They are intelligent, interactive, and identifiable. Like us, gorillas’ hands have opposable thumbs, and they can walk upright on two legs. Much of our cultural fascination with gorillas centers around just how human they can seem. The largest of the primate species, gorillas rank amongst the most recognized and the most endangered species in the world.
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