by Thor Hanson
Wassermann, Jakob. Bula Matari—Stanley, Conqueror of a Continent. New York: Liveright Publishers, 1933.
Weber, Bill and Vedder, Amy. In the Kingdom of Gorillas. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
How You Can Help
A portion of the proceeds from The Impenetrable Forest is being donated to help preserve and protect mountain gorillas in the wild. You can support these efforts directly by making gifts to any of the following organizations.
The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) is funded by three international conservation organizations. You can make program-specific IGCP donations to The African Wildlife Foundation, The World Wildlife Fund, or Fauna and Flora International.
African Wildlife Foundation
1400 Sixteenth Street NW Suite 120
Washington, DC 20036
1-888-4WILDLIFE
www.awf.org
World Wildlife Fund
1250 Twenty-Fourth St., NW
P.O. Box 97180
Washington, DC 20090-7180
800-960-0993
www.wwf.org
Fauna & Flora International
1720 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-375-7766
www.fauna-flora.org
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International was founded by Dr. Dian Fossey in 1978. It is dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitats in Africa.
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
800 Cherokee Ave., SE
Atlanta, Georgia 30315-1440
800-851-0203
www.gorillafund.org
Mountain Gorilla and Rainforest Direct-Help (Berggorilla und Regenwald Direkthilfe) supports gorilla conservation and research efforts in Africa and has published the bi-annual Gorilla Journal since 1992.
Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe
Lerchenstr. 5
45473 Muelheim, Germany
www.berggorilla.org
* After the overthrow of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, Zaire changed its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To agree with the time frame of this narrative (and to avoid confusion with the West African nation Republic of Congo), I’ve continued using Zaire throughout the book.
* Uganda’s aggressive HIV-AIDS education and prevention campaign has continued and is now widely credited with helping reduce HIV infection rates to approximately 6 percent nationwide by 2006.
* Bwindi harbors at least three species of duiker, the antelope common in Central African forests. Adults range from the size of a rabbit to more than 175 pounds, depending on the species.
* Most Ugandan villages have only a small trading center or no discernable locus at all. The word village usually denotes a small geographical area and all the farms and families therein.
* Among the worst affected were hundreds of Batwa pygmies, whose ties to (and dependance upon) the forest ran far deeper than agriculturalists like the Bakiga. Landless, and looked down upon by other tribes, they saw little benefit from the multiple use and revenue sharing schemes.
* Turkish caravans consisted largely of Egyptians, who were ruled by an Ottoman khedive until 1914. They followed the Nile south into the Sudan and northwestern Uganda, while Arabs generally forged inland from the East African coast.
* Taxanomists recently reclassified gorillas into two species. The eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) occurs in eastern Zaire, Rwanda, and Uganda, and includes two subspecies, the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and the Grauer’s or eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri). The western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) occurs in central and western Africa and includes two subspecies, the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli).
† Various spellings for the volcanoes have appeared over the years, but most modern maps list the six main peaks as Muhavura, Mgahinga, Sabinyo, Visoke, Karisimbi and Mikeno, with Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo rising up twenty miles to the west. Also, some cartographers still label the entire Virunga chain as the Bufumbira or Mfumbira mountains.
* DTB: Deutscher Tierschutzbund (German Animal Welfare Federation); B&RD: Berggorilla und Regenwald Direkthilfe (Mountain Gorilla and Rainforest Direct Help).
*Turn boys assist the drivers with collecting (and negotiating) fares, stowing luggage, etc.
* Among fruit bats, only the rousettes (Rousettus aegyptiacus) and several related species possess any capacity for echolocation. They use a simple form of tongue clicking, more primitive than the ultrasonic “sonar” of their insectivorous cousins, and secondary to their senses of sight and smell.
* Wire snares set for small game still pose a threat to gorillas. While the apes can easily break free, the snares cinch deep into the flesh of hands and feet, causing infection, maiming, and occasionally death. The Volcano Veterinary Center, based in Rwanda, also works in Zaire and Uganda, removing snares and treating any other human-induced wounds of gorillas in the wild. Liz Macfie led that project for three years before moving to Bwindi with IGCP. Direct poaching may be rare for mountain gorillas, but their lowland cousins continue to suffer terribly. In West Africa, locals regard both gorilla and chimp meat as a delicacy, and commercial hunting fuels a growing bush meat trade as rural populations and logging companies encroach farther into the rain forest. Gorilla parts are also used in a variety of local fetish medicines, e. g., to imbue a person with the legendary strength and virility of a silverback.